Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 81 In my spare time, when weather permits, I love to play golf, it relaxes me and gives me the exercise I desperately need in my retirement, as well as allowing me the opportunity to meet many interesting people. During a round earlier this summer I was paired with a young man who had a golfing partner that was different from all other golfers, in fact he wasn’t a golfer at all, but a Veteran service assist dog! My golfing partner that day was Blair Gorman and his partner and friend is Cessna, a black female Lab, and an absolutely dedicated friend and partner to Blair, but we will get into that a little later. I’ve gotten to know Blair over the various rounds we’ve played together over the summer months and I questioned him about his military career and discovered that his family are career military, including his father John Gorman and Blair’s son Alexander. Blair told me the tradition started with his father, John “Jack” R. Gorman, born 16 February 1939. Jack joined the Navy in 1956 and during his 22-year career sailed on many ships including, the Bonaventure, Athabascan, Skeena, Frasier, Preserver and Provider. As Blair tells it, his father served alongside with Airborne in Cyprus in 1974 as well as other NATO deployments. Jack retired from the military in 1978, and later in 2001, he joined the Corps of Commissionaires and retired from there after 17 years of service in 2018. Blair was excited to share the photo of himself with his father Jack in uniform, one day he would also serve Canada as his father had done. We skip ahead a generation to Blair’s son, Alexander B. Gorman, born 16 September 1992. Alex joined the Reserves in 2008 at age 16 with the Princess Louise Fusiliers, a reserve unit based in the Armouries building in Halifax, N.S. where he achieved the rank of Corporal. From 2012 through 2016Alexander was a student at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ont., Canada’s foremost military college. Alex graduated in the top 16 of his class with an Honours degree in psychology and did his basic training in Saint-Jean Quebec. He was posted to Valcartier Que. upon graduation to 1 R22R, “Van Doos”, and from September 2018 through April 2019 was deployed to the Ukraine with the Joint Task Force. Upon completion of that deployment Alex was posted to Gagetown in New Brunswick where he presently holds the rank of Captain. 3 Generations of the Gorman Family By Steve Wessel John (Jack) R. Gorman John Gorman with his son Blair Alexander J. Gorman at RMC Kingston continued ...
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