Veterans Affairs Committee on March 31st, 2015

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Thank you. I hope that as many veterans as possible will have the opportunity to go on this trip and to receive, perhaps one last time, this gesture of gratitude. As I have just said, if I were a veteran, this kind of testimony would deeply touch me.

Thank you once again.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Hawn.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, all of you, for being here.

General Rohmer, I flew out of Eindhoven myself, but it was 30 years or so after you did. It was a friendlier time, obviously.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

The Eindhoven runway is one single strip that is about ten degrees off. That's what we had to operate from. It's still the same, except that it is beautifully kept now.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

And we used a little more runway in our aircraft than you used in yours.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I lived in the area of Alsace. You were talking about your name and your heritage, and of course, depending on when in history you were talking about, it could well have been German.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

It's French.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I understand.

That's how I would remember it as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

You have to change it to “e-a-u”.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

That's right.

We talk about Gallipoli, General. Remember this is between your sense of history and your sense of Canadians' appreciation and understanding of history. Gallipoli for the Australians and New Zealanders is a seminal event. Vimy, obviously, was a seminal event for Canadians.

Can you compare the two, the relationship between the Kiwis and Aussies with Gallipoli and Canadians with Vimy? Are there things we can learn from these folks about how we relate to Vimy, and how we get Canadians to relate to Vimy, compared with the way they do to Gallipoli?

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

There's no way I could answer that question at all because you and I weren't there.

We know that the Aussies, having trained with some of them, are a magnificent race of people who are quite different.

I couldn't answer that question at all.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I don't mean it from a military point of view at all. I mean from the way we relate to history and the way we commemorate that.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

The best I can say about Gallipoli is Churchill, right?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

It was not his finest hour.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

Of course it wasn't. That's the thing that I can't....

That's a great question, but I can't answer it.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Okay. I appreciate that.

You have vast experience with these kinds of events and commemorations. We've been together at a couple of them, as you have with Peter. You've been with the Queen at a number of them.

I don't think you were at the Bomber Command Memorial.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

No, I'm not Bomber Command. I'm something else.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I understand that, but we're all the same under the skin.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

Yes, that's right.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

With regard to your experiences with the Queen, you've been at many events with her at these kinds of things.

What are your experiences with her, her sense of history and her sense of Canadians' role in history? I know she has a very deep understanding and appreciation of that.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

She does, indeed.

My first time with her was in 1975. I was commander of the air reserve group as it was being put together.

This was in Tortola. It was her 25th anniversary celebration, and I was tasked to raise money to buy, as part of St. John Ambulance, an ambulance and get it down to Tortola and have her present the ambulance to the chief minister when she was there for the opening of Parliament in 1977, I think it was.

That was the first time I met her. I raised the money for the ambulance, got it built, and flew it down. The commander of Air Command, where I was lodged at that point, said there would be a training exercise down to Tortola, strangely enough.

We got the ambulance down, and when she came to the hospital, I was standing in front of this beautiful new ambulance. I had the keys in my hand. Mary-O was with me. When the Queen came up, I did what I was supposed to do. I handed her the keys and said, “Your Majesty, in your capacity as the sovereign head of the Order of St. John, will you please give the keys to the chief minister.” He was standing right next to her—a great man. She did that.

Then she said, “General, you may know that I drove an ambulance during the war.” I said, “Of course, Your Majesty, I remember very well.” She said, “I'd like to see the inside of the ambulance.” I said, “Come with me.” There was a little ramp up the side and a drop-off. We have pictures of this. She followed me up, and I went up to the door and pushed the button, but somebody had locked the door and the keys were back with the chief minister. She said it was all right. We have the pictures, in which she is smiling and laughing.

She was a very good-looking young lady, I can tell you that. She was really beautiful.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

She's younger than you are.

[MGen Richard Rohmer]

Everybody is.