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30 April to 15 May 1969 - HMCS
ONONDAGA was operating at sea near Halifax.
15 May 1969 - HMCS ONONDAGA departed
Halifax.
24 May 1969 - HMCS ONONDAGA in St.
Georges, Bermuda.
30 May 1969 - HMCS ONONDAGA on the
surface - Swim & firing competition using garbage bags. 23 films onboard.
31 May 1969 - HMCS ONONDAGA in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida for 3 days.
3 June to 14 June 1969 - HMCS
ONONDAGA participated in NATO's Exercise SPARK PLUG off Bermuda and Florida.
Participants included American, British,
Dutch and Portuguese ships and submarines. The purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate how fleet
submarines working with surface ships can protect a convoy.
This scene in the movie Das Boot reminds
me of a dark night in 1969 onboard ONONDAGA, somewhere in the Atlantic north of
Bermuda. We were under "Radio Sllence" so ONONDAGA had to surface in rough sea
to communicate with a British submarine using the Aldis lamp. I spent over two
hours on the bridge sending and receiving morse code by light while being
drenched by massive waves. I had been feeling sick during the past weekend spent
in St. Georges, Bermuda and these two hours spent on the bridge in the middle of
a storm made me feel even worse. By the next morning,
I was delirious and my fever had skyrocketed. We were now facing a hurricane and
the submarine went deep to escape the weather. I didn't know at the time but my
situation had developed into a pneumonia. I could not be evacuated due to the
weather. I don't remember what happened to me over the next two days. I was
delirious and continuously being washed down to control my temperature. I
finally came around and spent the rest of the trip recovering in my bunk.
Hospital tests later revealed that I had suffered a pneumonia. I was told that,
while delirious, I had said some "nasty things" to the XO
(Executive Officer), so I went to
apologize to him, just in case....
18 June 1969 - HMCS ONONDAGA returned
to Halifax.
1 July to 27 July 1969 - HMCS
ONONDAGA operating at sea near Halifax.
28 & 29 July 1969 - Guest cruise for
family and friends onboard HMCS ONONDAGA.
1 August to 4 August 1969 - HMCS
ONONDAGA alongside Halifax. Generator problems.
8 August 1969 - Visit of Prime
Minister Pierre E. Trudeau.
While in Halifax for the 1969 Canada
Summer Games, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau took some time off to visit
the First Canadian Submarine Squadron and to take a
short cruise onboard submarine HMCS OKANAGAN.
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