It took just one $2 raffle ticket for Sailor (First Class) Dante Brum-Letourneau to win the right to have the ceremonial first kiss when HMCS Vancouver pulled into port Thursday morning after a six-month deployment.
His partner, Nadia Tymoshuk, ran up the brow leading from the jetty to the ship, and he met her partway.
“It was amazing,” Brum-Letourneau said. “I got one ticket and that’s all I needed.”
A lot of crew members bought more but he said Tymoshuk was convinced he had luck on his side.
“Nadia was like ‘you only need one ticket to win’ and it actually worked.”
Tymoshuk said she’s looking forward to getting into a regular routine now that Brum-Letourneau is home.
She said it’s “surreal” to see him in person after 184 days apart. “It’s been a long time but now that he’s back, it doesn’t feel like any time has passed.”
Brum-Letourneau said the deployment was the first of his naval career. “It’s great coming home,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to this the whole time, so it’s definitely the end goal.”
He said he’s even looking forward to household chores, like cleaning the bathroom. “I’m missing that, doing stuff, doing the dishes,” he said. “I can’t wait.”
Rebecca Sarachman, who was among the many spouses waiting on the jetty, said her husband, Matthew, a master sailor, would be seeing a lot of changes in their two children — six-year-old Oakleigh and three-year-old Opal.
“The younger one wasn’t talking when he left and now she just doesn’t stop,” said Sarachman, adding the kids are beyond excited. “Dad’s home and Santa’s coming — those are the two highlights right now.”
Sara Watson, who was waiting for her husband, Curtis, with children Noah, 6, and Owen, 4, said this was the second deployment for Curtis, a sailor (first class), and homecomings are always special. “It’s something only military families can experience, embrace,” Watson said. “It’s going to be an amazing Christmas, that’s for sure.”
Cmdr. Tyson Bergmann, captain of HMCS Vancouver, said the first part of the deployment for the crew of about 240 included participation in Exercise Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, off Hawaii — the world’s largest joint maritime exercise.
That led to four months in the Indo-Pacific region off Japan and Guam, then it was on to Australia before the ship headed to the Philippines for scheduled maintenance.
Bergmann said it’s important to maintain a naval presence in the region, to promote peace and stability in key areas like the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas.
One highlight of the deployment was the historic rearmament of missiles while the ship was in Australia, replacing two that were fired during RIMPAC.
It was the first rearmament of a Royal Canadian Navy vessel outside of Canadian or American territory.
