Terror on the ALERT comes from my time in British and Canadian submarines. A mere dog watch, compared to many of my former shipmates. I was extremely lucky to find myself, in 1968, as ‘fourth hand’ as the Brits would say; in Canadian parlance, Operations Officer in Her Majesty’s Canadian Submarine OKANAGAN. The OK was the third and last of Canada’s Oberon class submarines, top-flight boats that served Canada well for more than thirty years. Regarding OKANAGAN, I can’t put it better than has Don “Buster” Brown, outside wrecker on commissioning, and later in his career Maritime Command Chief Petty Officer:

“HMCS/m Okanagan was the most glamourous and up-to-date O-boat ever built in her time and was, sadly, the last submarine (and vessel) to be built in Chatham dockyard’s long history of submarine construction.”

OKANAGAN commissioned on June 22^nd, 1968, and less than a week later sailed for work-ups in Faslane, Scotland.