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| Duncan "Dusty" Miller. |
You might say it was a tight spot.
Throughout his distinguished naval career, Vice-Admiral Duncan“Dusty” Miller has always made time for his firstlove—the stage—even when it’s raised a feweyebrows among sailors and the navy brass.
On one occasion, when he served as the defence advisor to thePrivy Council Office, he found himself taking a call from PrimeMinister Brian Mulroney between acts of TheGondoliers.
“As the PM’s advisor, you had to be prepared to takea call no matter where, no matter when,” he explains,recalling that he was backstage changing out of a pair of whitetights and into beige. “So, I got this call and I tell thePM, ‘you’re never going to believe where I am.’After I explained, there was a great burst of laughter at the otherend.”
Retired from the Canadian Navy in 2003 after 38 years ofservice, the Vice-Admiral finds himself again donning the“fore and aft” hat to play the “ruler of theNavee” in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMSPinafore.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Nova Scotia is actuallycalling its production HMCS Pinafore—the‘c’ is added—in recognition of the 100thanniversary of the Canadian Navy.
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After playing Halifax, HMCS Pinafore sets sail fortheatres throughout Nova Scotia, docking at the Marigold Theatre inTruro on May 8, the DeCoste Centre in Pictou on May 15 andKing’s Theatre in Annapolis Royal on May 29.
“The sound is glorious and the choreography isdaunting,” says the Vice-Admiral, who in his retirement,serves as a research fellow with Dalhousie’s Centre forForeign Policy Centre and chases after his six grandchildren.“I always find it a challenge to think, chew bubblegum andput your feet in the right place. You really do have to keep yourwits about you.”
There are more than 40 people in the cast. Vice-Admiral Millershares his role with Brian King and plays an “ordinarysoldier with a mop” on alternate nights.
“That was me at one time,” he says proudly,informing that he enlisted in the Canadian Navy when he was 16years old. “I lived in the mess deck and remember what it waslike to be below deck when the ship was heaving. Your stomach wouldbe up on the ceiling when the rest of you was already on the waydown.”
Born in England, he recalls a few trans-Atlantic journeys byCunard Liner when he was a boy. Later, his family moved to Canadaand he grew up in Saint-Lambert, located opposite Montreal on thesouth shore of the St. Lawrence. He always loved the sea, and triedto enlist at the age of 15. Compelled to wait a year, the navy paidfor his university education and set him up for a lifetime ofadventure.
He has commanded a minesweeper, a helicopter destroyer, theFirst Canadian Destroyer Squadron and the Canadian Forces MaritimeWarfare Centre. During the Gulf War in 1990-1991, he commandedCanada's Naval Task Group and the 60-ship Allied Combat LogisticsForce. His last job was as Chief of Staff for the Supreme AlliedCommander's NATO Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. He served forthree years as head of Canada's East Coast Navy in Halifax from1997-2000.
As he made his way through the ranks, he says it was importantthat “I stuck to who I was.” And that meant approachingthe job with a sense of humor and a relaxed professionalism.Throughout, the former boy soprano nurtured his artisticside—“And that’s what made me comfortable in myown skin.”