The Gallant Hussars | firsthussars

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CHAPTER XX
PEACEKEEPING

In 1957 Canada 's Lester Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in creating the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) as a means of defusing the previous year's Suez crisis. The Canadian Army was represented on that commitment and Canadian soldiers would deploy in support of every United Nations (UN) force raised over the next 40 years. The Army always considered peacekeeping to be a subsidiary task, one following Canada 's higher priority commitments in NATO and North American defence. However, the government, and the Canadian public, came to accept peacekeeping as an end in itself and felt obliged to support Mr. Pearson's creation regardless of an individual mission's relevance to Canada 's wider interests or even the availability of enough soldiers to properly discharge the accepted tasks. This, coupled with continuous reductions in manpower, led over the years to a personnel crisis.

In the early 1970s Mobile Command, the successor organization to the Canadian Army, began to experiment with the contingent serving in Cyprus . The Cyprus tasking required an infantry battalion of roughly 500 all ranks. The first experiment was to replace the overstretched infantry units with other combat arms organizations. As a result the Lord Strathcona's Horse (RC) served a six-month tour in Cyprus in 1972-73. Soon artillery regiments were doing the same and the burden of peacekeeping was spread a little more evenly over the land forces. Still, it was not enough and soon sub-units from other units would be attached to the tasked combat arms unit for the duration of the Cyprus tour. So many soldiers had served in Cyprus so many times that a groundswell arose to have their multiple tours formally recognized. This led to Canada approaching the United Nations and requesting the authorization of what came to be known as tour numerals - a silver numeral worn on the UN medal ribbon to denote the number of separate tours. With the numbers on the various ribbons steadily climbing it was not long before the regular army turned to its only other source of manpower, the Militia, for some relief.

The Hussars answered the call in 1975 and Corporals Jim McNeil and Ian Haley became the first members of the Regiment to serve on a UN tour, deploying to Egypt in 1975. Simultaneously Warrant Officer Mike Steele (who dropped to sergeant for the six month tour) went to the Golan Heights on the Israel / Syria border. Ian Haley's memories of his tour are appended to the end of this chapter.

1980 United Nations Golan Heights Cpl Chris Thompson

In the 1990s the manpower situation was such that units on peacekeeping tours were regular force in name only, their ranks filled with reservists to the extent of 20 or 30 or 40 percent of their parade strength. In 1994 Lieutenants Harry Chadwick, Jay Markow and Mark Poland, Corporals Terry Archer and Chris Carpenter and Troopers P.A. Smith and K. Boyd were deployed in support of the Royal Canadian Dragoons in Bosnia . The RCD were using the Cougar ‘tank trainers', now pressed into service as operational vehicles and to a large degree manned by reservists. That autumn the Serbs, in retaliation for NATO air strikes on Serb airfields in the (Serb-held) Krajina region of Croatia. , decided to detain 55 Canadian soldiers. These Canadians, including those Hussars mentioned above, were held for sixteen days before their release was negotiated. Lieutenant Poland described the event in a diary entry:

Excerpt from The Gallant Hussars:

Left: November 1994: Lt Mark Poland, Tpr K. ‘Woody' Boyd in Bosnia one hour before their capture. They were held as prisoners of the Serbs for sixteen days

Right: 1994 Bosnia left of picture Lt Mark Poland, right of picture Tpr Eric Marshall with other reservists

- 25 Nov 95

Well it's now day 2 of our detainment and I (lazy) am finally writing some notes. First the background: It started 23 Nov 94 at 1215 hrs. I was the first one to hear about it (our detention) through Major Miric, who requested a meeting between Major Milner (my OC) and Major Savic (local Serb commander). Miric told me before the OC knew that Checkpoint Papa was closed and that we would become their ‘guests'. My first reaction was not surprise, strangely enough. It was more like coping... I thought basically, okay this is the situation, what can we do about it? Lt(N) Chris Henderson (the Battle Group PAFFO) [Public Affairs Officer] and his photographer Cpl Marc Bergeron were in my Cougar 19E to film some Christmas messages at the OPs [Observation Posts] and are now also ‘here to stay'. As the situation developed, the Cougars were gathered in downtown Ilijas (Serb town 15 KM outside Sarajevo), except for about 30 soldiers who are still in the OPs including Tpr P.A. Smith (C Sqn 1H) and Tpr K. ‘Woody' Boyd (C Sqn 1H). Shortly thereafter the officers were separated from the men, and we [the officers] were allowed to keep our sidearms. The men, including my driver Cpl Rob Carter are detained and living in the Military Police Security Building in downtown Ilijas, while the officers and Sergeant Major Skelding (SSM A Sqn RCD) are sleeping in the Ilijas Brigade's Headquarters...

Left: 18 November 2003 Bosnia 1st Hussars personnel Cpl F.T. Cosgrove Ammo troop and Cpl K. Phoenix Range Control staff

Right: Tpr K. Boyd, Lt M. Poland, President G. Bush Senior, Cpl Dan Worral OntR at Shannon Airport in Ireland returning from Bosnia May 1995.

1994 Bosnia Tpr Eric Marshall

1998 Bosnia Capt Mark Whitworth Liaison Officer

1998 Bosnia Capt Mark Whitworth with Russian BMP 2 crew and other International Liaison Officers

1994 Bosnia, Cpl Terry Archer putting chains on 'Grizzly"

1995 Tpr Boyd UNFPRFOR Identification Card

The Bosnian rotations continued and more Hussars such as Captains Mark Whitworth and Harry Chadwick, Sergeants Don Knaus and S.J. Elliot and Corporals Terry Archer, J.C. Knight, Steve Gardiner and Jessica Lee were there on what was the largest operational deployment undertaken by the Regiment since the Second World War.

A new century saw new fields of service and when Canadian troops deployed to Africa and Afghanistan in 2002-03 Hussars soldiers such as Captain Harry Chadwick and Master Corporal J.W.E. Boyd and Corporals Williams and Carr were there to represent the Regiment, helping to crew the Canadian military's newest vehicles, the Coyote and the Bison.