Archive for November, 2005

Canada is a border nation. Over 75 per cent of us live within 160 kilometres of the United States. By comparison, only 12 per cent of Americans live within 160 kilometres of the boundary. For almost every Canadian, the border is a reality of daily […]

The Royal Canadian Navy’s survival and prosperity between the wars depended on two key individuals: Commodore Walter Hose, RCN, the director and later first chief of the Naval Service who developed a sensible fleet plan, and William Lyon […]

The first airmail flight in Canada was a military affair, organized by the Aerial League of the British Empire and the Royal Air Force. Captain Brian Peck, an instructor in the Canadian-based RAF training scheme, together with a mechanic, Corporal E.W. […]

Sicily is an island of extremes and in July, when the sun shines for 11 hours a day, temperatures often reach 40°C. The men who fought for the hill towns of central Sicily in 1943 remember the heat, the dust and the stony landscape with its […]

Many years ago, John Ford was unfortunate enough to be a prisoner of war in Japan and forced to perform slave labour in the dockyard at Nagasaki. It was there that he saw the beginning of the end of World War II.

The St. John’s, Nfld., native […]

It was a strange and dangerous coincidence for the pilgrims.

On the same day The Royal Canadian Legion Youth Leaders’ Pilgrimage of Remembrance flew into London to begin its July 7-21 trip, terrorist bombs were exploding across the city; on the day the pilgrims flew out of […]

As I approach my eighth decade, I think of him as my Sergeant Pilot. I know he neither is nor was any more mine than the moon or stars, yet there is something so profoundly personal in the fact that he wished the best for me. […]

With his tanned complexion, his business casual attire and the fine gold chains hanging loosely around his neck, Peter Scapeti has the look of a man who would fit in nicely at the local golf and country club or a board meeting of the chamber […]

Of all the interesting, dramatic, exciting, aspects of defence policy and military operations, none is more dull than procurement. The very word seems to induce boredom.

Military historians and defence policy analysts are well aware of the somnolent qualities of procurement study. In any well-stocked […]

Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, told an emotional Governor General Adrienne Clarkson that she would always be a member of “the Canadian Forces band of brothers.”

It was all part of a ceremony on Sept. 21, full of pomp and dignity on […]