All posts by Dinger

About Dinger

A sea cadet at RCSCC LION from 1963 to 1968, I joined the Naval Reserve at HMCS STAR in 1968 as a Bos'n. I was an Officer Cadet in the ROUTP, commissioned in 1971, and awarded my watchkeeping ticket in 1973. I served at sea, at one time or another, in all five Gate Vessels and HMCS FORT STEELE & CHAUDIERE as well as the Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St. Laurent and served as OIC of the patrol vessels RALLY and RAPID. At STAR from 1968 to 2007, I served as XO twice and then as CO from 2002 to 2005. I rounded out my career by serving as SSO Training at NAVRESHQ in Quebec City in 2008, retiring in 2009 as CO of HMCS HUNTER in Windsor. I was Executive Director for the Friends of HMCS HAIDA till 2011 and have been an active volunteer onboard HAIDA since she arrived in Hamilton in 2003.

THE FLEET IN WHICH WE SERVED: Visit to Corvettes Bound for Scrap Heap Brings Back Memories

What's New?

The June 1949 issue of the navy’s magazine, The Crownsnest, carried a story relating the visit by a group of STAR officers to STELCO to inspect corvettes awaiting scrapping for anything useful for training. See: http://readyayeready.com/crowsnest/issue.php?year=49&month=06. Thanks to SLt Marko Babic for the link. See also Warships Scrapped in Hamilton at https://hamiltonnaval.ca/hamilton-steel-city-naval-town/warships-scrapped-in-hamilton/

RCNA – Royal Canadian Naval Association

What's New?

The Canadian Naval Association was formed in 1954 and became the Royal Canadian Naval Association in 1963. A series of reunions were held each year with the fifth in Hamilton in June 1959.


The 1959 CNA parade at the Cenotaph, Gore Park, Hamilton, probably 6 or 7 June 1959. STAR’s band fallen in facing the Cenotaph and the ship’s company on the south side of the Gore.