The Energon Pub

The majority of you reading this probably won’t really give a darn, but all the military folks where I work and elsewhere across Canada had a huge day today because our Defence Minister came to Halifax and announced that our Maritime and Air Commands will once again be known as the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force respectively and that our Land Force Command will be renamed the Canadian Army. Yet another thing for our Monarchists and anti-Royals to fight over, I’m sure, but I confess that the news has me feeling a tad nostalgic…

The odd thing is that when I joined the military, Canada didn’t even have an actual named army, navy or air force anymore. What you joined back then was the tri-services, and depending on what trade you were and where you worked, you were designated either a land, sea or air element member. The Commands were only re-established some years later and It wasn’t until my retirement posting, which was the one and only time I ever worked in a navy setting and not on an air base, that my trade was finally designated as an Air Command trade ONLY. That news hit some of our long-term tradesmen hard and the old navy chief running our office quit rather than endure the shame of having to wear an air force wedgie or Air Command insignia, something I always found both funny and sad. It’s a shame that old chief isn’t around anymore. I know he would have loved to have been a part of the Royal Canadian Navy again, even if just in spirit.

Well, anyhoo, just thought I’d pass this on even though it’s greatest impact will likely only ever be amidst the ranks of fanfic writers writing ‘Due South’ stories! You can google the news for ‘peter mackay announcement Canada’ or anything similar for the next few days, should you feel inclined to read more about it.

I just learned more about the Canadian military than I had ever known...

Well, here’s another tidbit about our military protocol, which has a funny story attached. In the Canadian military, you’re not supposed to address officers by their rank alone—it’s supposed to be either ‘sir’ or the rank plus the last name, don’t ask me why exactly. And while it’s pretty strictly enforced within the navy and army ranks, air force officers, pilots especially, do tend to be fairly lax about enforcing this rule…

Shortly after Air Command first came into being and was still flexing its administrative muscles, somebody there in a position of authority must’ve gotten into a real snit over this and all the air bases were sent this very officious memorandum reminding everybody of the correct manner in which to address officers, complete with examples. At the time, our immediate boss where I was working was the Base Operations Officer and we’ll say he was a major and his first name was Wally. Wally was one of those officers who wasn’t very good at enforcing what he perceived as useless dogma. Nonetheless, he dutifully sent the memo down the chain of command within his section, just as he was supposed to, but added his own little cover slip. As near as I can remember, it read thusly:

‘Well, you can call me Wally. You can call me late for dinner. You can even call me dumb-shit. But please please PLEASE do not call me Major!

P.S.: Forward this junk mail.’

Ahem. And just to bring the subject of Transformers back in, am I the only fan who gets right off on all the military ‘crap’ Michael Bay seems to love inserting into his Transformers movies? Personally, I think high-tech military weaponry and Transformers are a perfect mix! I relish scenes like Optimus standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier…it always seems…just right. (Course I would have liked it even better if said aircraft carrier was itself a Transformer, but hey, I'll take what I can get...)

At least Wally's name wasn't Woody. Then he definitely would have hated being addressed by his rank...

I remember when Bay's name first came up as a director for Transformers back in '05 or '06, I was 1 of the very few who approved, because of his treatment of the military onscreen, as well as his knack for action in general. I did not want to see another Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, so I was happy to get him as a director. Overall, I still am, as the action and SFX make the trilogy what it is, though his screenwriting can definitely be improved. I've never been into the military much, though I do like documentaries on them as well as books, but I liked how the military and its actions were incorporated into the movies.

Well, we still designate our vessels with HMCS. So this doesn't surprise me.

I take it you live in Halifax?

Y'know, the Snowbirds came to the 'Burgh in '08, and it never even occurred to me that their Herc didn't have "RCAF" on it....

Rodimus Prime: If the agonybooth movie site had archived its old forums, I could have pulled up exactly where I first found out that Bay had been slated to do the upcoming Transformers movie, via a thread entitled ‘Bay to direct Transformers’, something like that. And just as you experienced, the immediate reaction was very negative—poster after poster exclaiming some variant of “Aaaah! That hack! What a terrible choice!” I finally weighed in with something along the lines of “Now wait a minute! Don’t most people watch Transformers in part to see them transform and clobber each other? Isn’t that what Michael Bay’s known for, making a spectacle out of heavy-duty action sequences involving mega-destruction and machinery? If so, I don’t see the problem here. I think Bay’ll do fine.” After that, a few more people came on that were willing to wait and see and even welcomed the news, but yeah, lots of initial hostility…still lots, I gather…

I don’t know if there’ll be more live-action Transformers movies, but if so, I hope whoever takes over the reins has at least that one thing in common with Bay, an appreciation for fine machines, both alien and Earthly, and the ability to make a spectacle out of them. It’s one of the big reasons I’d like to see more Seeker characters in the future plus at least one huge new good guy who could become the Autobots’ personal transport plane—I just love the sheer look and idea of transforming aircraft…so graceful yet lethal, so many possibilities…

On unfortunate names: A while back, there were a couple of young naval lieutenants in the area, both of them posted aboard ship, with the last names Leak and Virgin (I kid you not). I used to feel so sorry for them because I could just picture what happened when their pals got drunk, all the crank calls they’d put into the poor guys’ respective wardrooms…”Excuse me, do you have a Leak onboard?”…“Would you happen to have a Virgin on the ship?” You just know they did it!

Jesterhead: I know! The ships’ names always hung on and then the old naval rank structure returned…so much for integration. There was some talk floating around today in our office about the old air force ranks coming back too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did…

PS: Work in Halifax proper, live out in the county, near Lawrencetown Beach.

Skyfire77: Yeah, I think even through our military’s integration period, a lot of people still used the old designations just out of habit. I’ll be curious to see how the markings change on the various aircraft in service and how fast it all gets done. Our official air force site is certainly on the ball—I think they changed back to being the RCAF the instant the announcement was made official! (Picturing the web designer with his finger lifted and ready to punch in the new home page, counting down the seconds…)

And thanks for the photos! The Herc you saw has been around a while and if you google her number…CC-130E 130325…you can find more photos of her in other countries and as she used to look wearing different paint jobs. They are a neat plane to ride in and the compartment where the flight crew sits always reminded me of the bridge of a ship.

By the way, how did you like the Herc gunship pounding the snot out of Scorponok in the first movie? That was one of those sequences where I enjoyed the ‘real stuff’ as much as the CGI creations.

I love watching Spookies and Spectres do their thing. It's such an American idea y'know? "Let's take a bunch of guns, mount them on the side of a transport plane, and let it do pylon turns while we pound the s**t of of whatever needs pounding."

Can't wait to see what they come up with for the AC-130J.

What would they call the next generation of C-130 gunships, I wonder? Wraiths? And I agree. Sometimes overkill IS kinda cool...(there--I said it, I admit it)...

And, okay, screw reality. In the next trilogy of live-action Transformers movies already playing in my mind, I WILL cast that giant new Autobot who transforms into either a C-5 or C-17 and, because he's got magical morphing abilities and can HANDLE it, he WILL have a gunship mode. I'd be happy. You'd be happy. Optimus would be happy. And the rest of the Autobots could ride in style.

How about a triple changer that can go from seaplane to submersible?