Well, Sunray...my "fat arse" was, 10 Aug, nervously guiding and mentoring student drivers along the MSR down the 7th Line at LFCTA TC Meaford under blackout driving conditions. So there!
Grizzly stories: mostly good memories, except for the raging argument about where the Crew Commander/Section Commander was to position himself...CC hatch or man the guns in the Cadillac-Gage 1 metre turret?
Speaking of which, the Grizz turrets were removed and fitted onto the M-113 hull. An extra track sprocket was added and the veh is now called the TLAV (Tracked Light Armoured Vehicle).
Also, some 100 de-turreted AVGPs were sent to some African despotic nation (?) "on loan" for their nationalistic purposes. Do you think we'll ever see them again?
I recall doing training in beautiful Base Boredom in the sand dunes in and around Pylon Hill. Great training area, which is where the Armoured Fighting School did it's training during WWII. Roaring around the Square Woods, through the small and big fords and generally massaging sand into smaller particles.
We did a road move from Blackdown Park to Meaford to do an advance to contact upon arrival. Some bright spark of an MP decided that, en route, he would deploy our convoy along a short cut. This diversion was not on our trace, so upon cresting a hill at a respectable rate of speed our Platoon packet came up a meathead frantically waving for us to do a left turn. Lead vehicle jammed on the binders in order to comply, resulting in 3 other vehicles rear ending each other.
Result: many military charges, many injuries (none fatal, one was a microphone boom piercing a soldier's cheek) and a Platoon worth of vehicles LOB for the attack.
Some courses on the Grizzly were luckier than others. Some got to swim the vehicle in Georgian Bay, but not fire the guns from the turret at Caen Tower. Conversely, some guys got to fire the guns but not enjoy the marine activity.
All in all, a most enjoyable experience in Mech Infantry deployments and tactics.
C/S 41.