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Author Gord Hunter will be at the Yorkton Public Library next Wednesday promoting his book No-Badge Killick.

The book tells the story of Gord Hunter鈥檚 journey from a young naive recruit to, eight years later, a seasoned leading seaman, a submariner in Canada鈥檚 Cold War navy.

Hunter, who was born in Grand-M猫re, Quebec, lived in six different provinces, and spent almost 20 years in Regina, has a background in writing, although No-Badge is his first novel.

鈥淚 studied Communications Arts at what is now Mount Royal University in Calgary focusing on Broadcasting and journalism,鈥� he told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淚 published two limited run cookbooks and numerous articles for internal union communications.鈥�

聽But, where did the idea for the book come from?

鈥淚t struck me at some point when sitting around swapping yarns with friends that my stories were unique,鈥� said Hunter, who joined the navy at age 17. 鈥淣o one else in my circle of friends had dealt with storms in the North Atlantic, tracked Soviet submarines and spy ships, served in the submarine service or sailed to 麻豆视频 America and watched the 麻豆视频ern Cross climb higher into the night sky as the Big Dipper sunk into the Northern horizon.

鈥淎s well, I thought it would be a good thing if my children could get a sense of what their father did as a young man.

鈥淣o-Badge Killick started as an exercise in writing and the stories in it first saw the light of day as a blog.

鈥淓ventually it occurred to me that, if the content in the blog was reorganized, expanded and rewritten, it could be a book.

鈥淚 took the stories down from the blog and started rewriting.鈥�

Hunter鈥檚 time in the navy was an interesting one, as he served in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Cold War from 1962 until 1970.

The timing of his career helped him decide to go forward with the book.

鈥淰ery few people today even know about the Cold War and for those who do it is a distant memory,鈥� said Hunter. 鈥淭he people who served during the Cold War are getting older. I have lost many old friends in recent years. I felt the stories were too important to be lost because no one had taken the time to write them down.

鈥淭here hasn鈥檛 been very much written about the Cold War Navy. Most of what I have found are academic studies - almost all unreadable examinations of the Navy by and about former senior members of the Naval hierarchy.

鈥淚t is an important period in Canada鈥檚 history mostly ignored by our government.鈥�

So, was it easy to get the stories on paper?

鈥淚n the beginning, a lot of the stories came to me without any great effort, but it helped that a couple of old friends live in Alberta, one I served with on surface ships and the other a former submariner who was a watch mate,鈥� said Hunter. 鈥淪itting with them and sharing our mutual experiences helped me recall a great deal.

鈥淚 had to do quite a bit of research though to fill in blanks and to find dates. I had to refresh my knowledge of some of the sonar systems I had worked on and to recall some of the more technical aspects of the submarines.

鈥淎t some point I gave a draft of the book to a group of friends, writers, and very diverse readers, asking for their thoughts. Their feedback helped me shape the later rewrites.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you how many times I rewrote chapter after chapter. It took me about seven years altogether.鈥�

The stories are of course Hunter鈥檚 life and he admitted that sharing some of it was a challenge.

鈥淔or the most part it wasn鈥檛 difficult getting the stories down, but I did struggle with having to bare my soul about some of the events that took place during those years,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t took me several rewrites to get the personal level right.鈥�

While sharing the personal side of the story was hard, it was not the only challenge in writing the book.

鈥淥ne of the biggest challenges in writing No-Badge Killick was crafting the descriptions of life at sea and in describing some of the more technical aspects of the stories,鈥� said Hunter. 鈥淭he book had to be approachable for anyone who had never been to sea and who had no understanding how, for example, a submarine鈥檚 snorkeling system works. At the same time, it had to be detailed enough to hold the interest of those who had been to sea and who had perhaps worked with that equipment or with some of the complex weapons systems described in the book.鈥�

But the story of living on the water also came through as a book strength, said Hunter.

鈥淟ife in the Navy during the 1960鈥檚 was a tough life in many ways,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he post war Navy was steeped in tradition and was stiflingly hierarchical but the camaraderie among the sailors in the lower decks would be hard to replicate. Despite it all, we had a lot of fun.

鈥淚 think the book captures much of what is was like for a young sailor during that time.鈥�

聽In the end, Hunter is satisfied with the story he has told.

鈥淚 have a good story; the book looks good, it feels good in your hand and I now have my own publishing company,鈥� he said.

鈥淢ore than that though the story continues; many readers who served in the navy the same time I did have been posting their experiences on-line through photos and their own stories some of which I have been sharing on my blog.

鈥淚 think every author looks back at what they have written and thinks, 鈥業 should have included that, or I wish I had expanded that section a bit more.鈥� But I am, all in all, very happy with the book and the decisions I made which brought [it] to fruition.鈥�

As for an audience, Hunter said it will appeal to those with an interest in Canadian history.

鈥淭he book is of particular interest to anyone interested in Canada鈥檚 involvement in the Cold War and Canadian veterans who served during that period,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he book offers a kind of validation of the importance of their service to many of the men and women who served during that time.鈥�

You can learn more about the book at https://nobadgekillick.blogspot.com/ or attend the library event at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26.