Cold war re-enactor kit

[Robert Bergeron]

Guys,

Speaking of Black Beauties, i have a story. Back in 1990 or so , i was on a course in Suffield Alberta with the PPCLi.

We were bussed from Curry Barracks in Calgary to Suffield in late afternoon and then trucked into the field during nightime.

At the time , i had learned already the virtue of sleeping whenever you could so i carried around an american green foam bedrest i could just unfold and trow myself one whenever i could to catch up on some sleep.

Anyway, we set up camp in a Combat Team bivouac with the M-113's and the Cougars with our groud sheets zipped up together and suspended on the side of my section M-113. The guys are blowing up their Black Beauties while i am already laying on my american foam mattress. The guys finally lay down on them and i hear air hissing out of all of them. Someone lights up with a red lens on his flashlight and all of a sudden we realise we had set up in the night on a bunch of crazy Suffield low crawling cactus !

Needless to say my friends slept for two weeks directly on hard , sunbaked and cold desert ground and those Black Beauties could never be restored having hundreds of prickholes in them !

Ah those Black Beauties. A good thing there aren't any cactus in the High Arctic !