This is one of many interviews conducted with retired members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Marine Division. This particular interview was conducted on June 30th, 2016 by Garry A. McCay.
JOHN (JACK) O. HIMMELMAN
John (Jack) O. Himmelman, Reg.# M-146 and Reg.# 26693, is a retired member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Marine Division and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Land Force. Jack was born in Rose Bay, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia in 1939.
When Jack was asked about jobs that he had prior to applying for the Force, he responded, “I had one. I left home when I was sixteen and went on an oil tanker. I was on the oil tanker for six years before I joined the RCMP Marine Division”.
“We used to carry oil from Venezuela into the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Mostly to Portland, Maine. They had a pipeline there and they used to ship it to Montreal to the refineries. It wasn’t only Portland. It was to every major port in the United States on the East Coast.”
When asked when he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he replied, “I joined in Halifax on the 9th of May, 1961. My family went along with it. I was on the loose for six years. The application process wasn’t very complicated. We had a Marine Sub/Division in Halifax then and that is where I was sworn in. Other than that, there wasn’t much to it”.
When asked if he went to training immediately, he said, “No. I probably had two years of service before I went to training. I was put on a boat, the old ‘Irvine’. From there I went on the ‘Wood’ and we made a trip that was called the bird run, up to the North Shore of Quebec. The ‘Blue Heron’ was up there and they transferred me from the ‘Wood’ to the ‘Blue Heron’ and that is where we spent most of the Fall. Next, we went back to Halifax for a week. Then we went to Newfoundland and barely got home for Christmas”.
“When we went to training, we went on the train. There was a whole crew of us. Not a crew but a troop. I don’t know how many were there. We did that in winter when the boats were docked. We trained at Rockcliffe, Ottawa, Ontario. I think it was ten weeks. Training consisted of foot drill and I know we had academic classes and PT. Up the rope and touch the roof.”
“We lived in barracks. I didn’t mind it. I wasn’t just coming out of the farm. I was used to being on my own for six years. It was just another thing. I guess the food was alright. I don’t remember. I didn’t starve to death.”
When asked if he got much free time while in training, he replied “We had to be in by ten o’clock and we had two late passes in a month or week, I don’t remember. I think ten o’clock was the curfew. We went to a local tavern. It wasn’t far from Rockcliffe”.
“There was no equitation. The horses were in Rockcliffe but we didn’t have stable duties. There was no swimming. I never learned to swim. The most I liked about training was probably the quiet times. We started early and it was just another day. We had fun amongst ourselves. You knew all your troop mates, the majority of them because you were on the ship before with them. You knew them before you got there. There were not any mates who gave me a hassle. The instructors were pretty good. They made us tow the mark. I don’t think they spared you any. I was glad to get on a train and get back to Halifax. I was tired of it up there. I can’t remember an official pass out.”
“When I left training, I came back to Halifax, to the Marine Sub/Division and I am pretty sure it was to the ‘Wood’. There were around thirty members on the ‘Wood’. I was a deck hand. I was a seaman, scrubbing and painting and standing on the gangway and saluting the officer when he came aboard.”</p