Nova Scotians who answered a “noble calling” as United Nations peacekeepers were recognized at 14 Wing Greenwood January 29, as the province presented a number of Western region retirees with United Nations Peacekeeper and Nobel Peace Prize-recognized peacekeepers (1947 to 1988) certificates.
Kings West MLA Chris Palmer, ministerial assistant to the provincial minister responsible for military relations and a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, presented the certificates on behalf of Premier Tim Houston.
“The United Nations has improved the lives of people around the world because of people who served – people like you,” Palmer said. “We’re grateful for your service and sacrifice. We all dream of a day peace is the norm but, in the meantime, we’re thankful for people like you who put on the blue beret.”
The province has received around 300 applications for the recognition certificate, and the portal remains open (novascotia.ca/united-nations-peacekeeper-certificate-recognition) for military and RCMP applications or nominations for those yet to complete the form. Palmer encouraged those in attendance to spread the word to peers.
“Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada with a standing committee in the legislature for veterans – and that speaks to our rich military heritage here. Congratulations to all of our recipients here today.”
14 Wing Greenwood Deputy Commander Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Curtis, with Wing Chief Warrant Officer Justin Harper, welcomed Palmer, certificate recipients and guests to the wing.
“This certificate acknowledges your contributions to the foundational principles of service: compassion, restraint, professionalism – and, especially, respect for human dignity,” Curtis said.
“Thank you for your service, at home and abroad.”
Sixty-two years ago, William Murphy, just 19 years old, found himself in Raifa, Gaza and Sharm El Sheikh on the first of three of his peacekeeping tours.
“It was a southern strip of desert – no one there but us, really. I was the lone radio operator. The Swedes were watching the ships, and one of them would run the message back a few hundred feet to us. The power for their radio was a bicycle, and they’d be bicycling their ass off to send messages – that was it! I’d send the message by Morse code to Raifi, and then they’d teletype it on to Geneva, and they’d send it to New York. How tech has changed….”
Murphy, who travelled from Shelburne for the recognition event, joined the Nova Scotia Highlanders as a reserve the day he turned 16, and the Regular Force Canadian Army signal corps eight days after his 17th birthday. He left training in Gagetown for that UN tour. In 21 years’ service, “my life was field duty – radio operators moved around a lot.” That included his Middle East UN tour in 1963, another Middle East tour in 1974 and a tour in the Golan Heights in 1976. As he remembered those life-changing experiences, a lifetime ago, his eyes welled.
Master Corporal (retired) Leo Veinot, now 96, spent 1955 to 1977 in Army transport. At 33 years old, he found himself in Vietnam in 1964, between Saigon, Hanoi and Laos; on a UN mission.
“Mostly we were guards in the embassies and, once in a while, we went out in the helicopters to pick up the wounded,” Veinot says. “Hunh… we picked up one guy, his leg had been blown off – but he was laughing. I asked the guys in the helicopter why, and they said he’d never have to fight again.
“I can still see him.
“I remember it well.”
Recipients (those unable to attend will receive certificates at a later date)
Donald Bailey, Golan Heights 1986
Andre Boudreau, Middle East 1975
Gilles Bourque, Haiti 1986
Samuel Brace, Cyprus 1969
Joseph Crouse, Middle East 1976
Peter Gimblett, Cyprus 1982, Haiti 1997
Robert Hebb, Cyprus 1967, Middle East 1977
James Hildebrand, Middle East 1978, Cyprus 1989
Paul Hill, Cyprus 1984, Golan Heights 1987
David Holdaway, Middle East 1978, Cyprus 1989
Art Leduc, Middle East 1978
Cordell Levy, Middle East 1979
Andrew MacLeod, Cyprus 1986
William Alexander Morrison, Cyprus 1986
Dennis Muise, Golan Heights 1985
William Murphy, Middle East 1963, Middle East 1974, Golan Heights 1976
Kenneth Piggott, Golan Heights 1983, Cyprus 1990
Bruce Rolfe, former Yugoslavia 1995, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2001
Linda Rolfe-Grantley, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1997
Donald Stansbury, Cyprus 1967 and 1970
Amy Striker, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2003
Leo Veinot, Southeast Asia 1964
