Condolences
Norman Jorgensen was an awesome guy with a great sense of humour. Yesterday, Chuck Ewart told me about Norm's passing in a telephone call. I was shocked. I swore. I couldn't believe it. I met Norm in the Canadian Army on his Trade Qualification Three (TQ3) course at Lord Strathcona's Horse at (Sarcee Barracks), CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Calgary in Fall of 1981. We were all in A Squadron together after TQ3 completion serving on Cougar tank trainers. Norm and I were in a group of TQ3s who spent hours in the evenings/weekends chatting amongst ourselves in Building A-13, CFB Calgary. We all went to the mess hall together. We'd go as a large group to movies in Calgary. Oh! and Norm had a fondness for Monty Python humour.
Him and Sam Kuhn had memorized lines from Monty Python's "Holy Grail" or Ritter der Kokonuss in German (Prince of the Coconut). I don't remember who was better. I thought both guys were hilarious. They would recite movie lines in the barrracks.
Somewhere along the line I was in Munich, W. Germany and saw Ritter der Kokonuss in a movie house. It was in English with German sub-titles. The effect was I laughed five seconds before the German cinema goers each time.
Norm had gone (rebadged) to the Royal Canadian Dragoons, CFB Lahr, W. Germany in 1983 I think. Norm was friends with Ian Zaremba I think. Guys like Sam Kuhn, Jim Booth, Greg Johnson, and Bill Attwood were posted in 1982? Chuck got posted to W. Germany in 1983. I made it there in 1984. Was Norm with a German gf at the time? He was ensconced with a new group of friends by the time I saw him in Summer?Fall? 1984. In German a person could say: Das ist ein lustiger, wahnsinnig netter Kerl. He is a great guy, funny and full of humour.
It was Norm who got me into reading Sven Hassel books in their English translation. You could not sit down with Norm at a table in the Mess Hall and not be entertained by his stories or opinions. He was a fan of Heckler and Koch firearms. He insisted the Canadian Army should adopt them. I agreed. Him and Mike Muranetz new lots about weapons. Mike was married so we rarely saw him in Germany. He later became an armourer (weapons technician), of course.
The last I knew of Norm (from Facebook) was that he had moved to Calgary and worked for Calgary Transit. He wrote in a Facebook post, "...but not as a driver!" Driving the 12 tonne Cougar six-wheeled armoured vehicles Recce Squadron accused us of being bus drivers! They weren't far wrong with the Detroit Diesel 6V53T engine and Allison transmission.
There are dates and names I may have confused. I dunno,
I was hoping at some point to visit Calgary and drop in on him. A lot of people are going to miss him. For sure, he was a good guy. I would like to extend my condolences to his close friends and family.
Derek Gordon Long, CPL (ret'd)
Cumberland, BC
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