While we all take great pride in the remarkable achievements of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in its early years and our service in the Force, much less is known or celebrated about the modern history. Much has changed in the last seventy-five years.
The very nature of police work, life at detachments; patrolling Canadian waters; social attitudes toward law enforcement; ‘Depot’; as well as police science and technology have led to dramatic transformations in the Force. Our veterans can provide an invaluable insight into how members experienced that history.
In an attempt to capture the modern history of the Force, the RCMP Veterans’ Association of Nova Scotia Division, embarked on an “Oral History” project to chronicle the varied experiences of some retired RCMP members, “In Their Own Words”.
The Marine Division was disbanded in the early 1970’s. It was especially important to interview former Marine Division members and record their service. The experiences for Marine Division members were, in many ways, quite different from those of members of the Land Force.
The importance of an individual member’s service cannot be underestimated. It is important that the interview is captured in an “Oral” interview, “In Their Own Words”. Each interview was recorded and later transcribed. Excerpts from these transcriptions will be published in the Nova Scotia Division news letter and in full on the “H” Division, Veterans’ Association, Nova Scotia website.
The majority of these interviews were conducted in person but a small portion were completed by telephone due to travel and health restrictions.
Four retired members volunteered to conduct these interviews. They were Garry A. McCay, Maarten Kramers, George Savage and Moody McKay. Letter were sent out to the retired members of the Marine Division, explaining the purpose of this project and members wishing to participate acknowledged their willingness to participate by completing the necessary forms and sending them back.
All of the interviews were transcribed. As can be expected, there are many humorous stories and some scary stories along with their service.
I trust you will find these stories of interest and I am sure some will find similarities with their own experience in the Force. Some of you may say, “I remember that. I was there”.
Submitted by Garry A. McCay
Director of History and Artifacts
“H” Division Executive