Thursday, November 16, 2006

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen
#11 - 13 Places my Husband has been posted as a Canadian Military Engineer

Last week I brought you: 13 Conflicts Past and Present in which Canadians Have Served
This week I'm sharing with you 13 places my husband has been posted, including his tours overseas (which I'm listing first). 1-4, naturally, were unaccompanied (being combat and peacekeeping missions) and 5 was also unaccompanied. Unaccompanied means that the family stays back home in Canada during the mission. Typically, for peacekeeping missions, the Canadian Forces member has one week of leave, sometime during the tour, where they can come home to Canada to visit family. Alternatively, one family member (ie. spouse) can fly to meet them somewhere between the mission location and Canada, provided it doesn't cost more to fly the family member and Canadian Forces member to that location, than it does to fly the Canadian Forces member back to Canada.
  1. Operation Desert Storm / Persian Gulf War: As a young Lieutenant (pronounced Left-tenant), my husband was in command of a troop of soldiers, who were originally deployed to provide engineering services for the Canadian Field Hospital in Saudi Arabia (including maintaining the water purification unit) but they ended up doing a lot of EOD work (Explosive Ordnance Disposal - in other words, munitions disposal) in Kuwait, after that country was liberated. My husband was actually the officer who opened up the Canadian Embassy in Kuwait City after the liberation.

  2. Operation HALO / United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) - My husband served a six-month peacekeeping tour in Haiti. In Haiti, again my husband participated in EOD work, as well as helping to re-build one of the major ports in Port-au-Prince. They also helped with humanitarian projects, such as rebuilding schools.

  3. Operation PALLADIUM / NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR) Bosnia - My husband served a six-month tour of duty in Bosnia, supervising mine clearance as well as rebuilding efforts. Again, the Canadian military engineers helped with humanitarian projects, such as rebuilding roads and schools.

  4. Operation ECLIPSE / United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) - This is another peacekeeping tour that my husband did. This one was particularly rough, because he was gone over Christmas. He was one of the first officers and soldiers to go over, because, as the Deputy Commanding Officer, he was in charge of the engineers setting up the camp. When they arrived, there was nothing but an empty field, and they had to build everything from scratch. They were living in pup-tents and burning their waste while they set up the camp. On Christmas Day, it is traditional for Canadian officers to do the soldiers' duties, to give the soldiers the day off. So my husband spent that Christmas burning human waste (this was before they had the sewer system for the camp set up) and ate a "boil a bag" meal. This was also during their first month of the tour, so they didn't have any phone or computer access yet. They only had the satellite phone for emergencies. So I didn't even get a call from him on Christmas. Once the camp was set up, around mid-January, I started hearing from him almost every day via email, and once a week by phone. But that Christmas was hard.

  5. Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK - My husband spent six months in England on course at the Royal Military College of Science, doing post-graduate-level work in explosive chemistry.

  6. 56 Field Engineer Squadron, St. John's, Newfoundland - This was my husband's reserve unit while he was a student at university. After graduating from university, he joined the Regular Force as an engineering officer.

  7. Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering, CFB Chilliwack, British Columbia - Sadly, the base at Chilliwack was closed during the 1990s, so there's no chance of being posted back there in the future. British Columbia has some of the nicest weather in Canada, but since there are no longer any regular force army bases in BC, it's highly unlikely we'll ever end up in BC.

  8. 2 Combat Engineer Regiment, CFB Petawawa, Ontario - This was my husband's first posting as a newly-minted Lieutenant, many years before I met him. While in Petawawa he earned his jumper's wings (passing the military parachute course), becoming an Airborne Engineer.

  9. 4 Engineer Support Regiment, CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick - My husband served two tours of duty in 4ESR. During his second tour he was the unit's DCO (Deputy Commanding Officer), second-in-command behind the Commanding Officer.

  10. Land Force Trials and Evaluation Unit, CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick - This unit conducted all kinds of different trials of various new equipment, and evaluated their performance. My husband was the engineering officer assigned to the unit.

  11. Directorate of Land Communication and Information, Ottawa, Ontario - My husband was the engineering officer assigned to DLCI. DLCI is responsible for the design, implementation and support of various information technology and telecommunications services.

  12. Canadian Forces Language School, Foreign Language School, Asticou, Gatineau, Quebec - My husband was posted here a year before our posting to Germany to learn the German language. I was fortunate enough to be able to take the language training with him. Here in Munich, my husband works as an exchange officer/liaison officer in a German environment, so he had to have a good working ability in German before being posted to Munich.

  13. Verbindungsoffizier, Pionierschule, Prinz-Eugen-Kaserne, München, Deutschland - This is our current posting to Munich. My husband is working as a liaison/exchange officer at the German military engineering school and at the NATO military engineering school. He keeps the German engineers apprised of Canadian military engineering issues, and vice-versa. He also teaches/lectures at the NATO school and the German military engineering school.

    Note: The red uniform my husband is wearing in the picture to the right is called "Mess Kit" or "Mess Dress". It is the formal uniform for engineering officers in the army, the equivalent of a civilian tuxedo. Although it is red, it is NOT an RCMP uniform. It is a Canadian Forces Officer's uniform.


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

48 comments:

Gattina said...

Very interesting carreer ! Apparently has seen quite a lot of the world ! I can immagine how awful this christmas was, for him and for you. It's hard to be separated and especially on this day. So he had to learn german and you too ? Quite difficult hmm ? Then "schöne Grüsse" to him !

Anonymous said...

I wonder if our husbands were on Op Palladium at the same time? Probably not since you mentioned yours being there when the embassy opened and mine was on one of the closing out tours.

I see we've been many of the same places over the years. Small world.

Wendy Ann Edwina D'Cunha e Pereira said...

He's been thru' a whole lot of difficult postings... A very interesting and happening career as well... Did yo go along with him... or did they all just give you sleepless nights...

Caylynn said...

Wendy, for any of the peacekeeping missions and combat missions, the Canadian Forces member goes alone. They do not allow families to accompany the member into those kinds of situations.

With postings, however, the family is normally moved with the Canadian Forces member. There are certain situations where the family doesn't move, but those are generally for temporary assignments, or when the family chooses not to move for some reason.

Nadiah Alwi - Write at Home Mom said...

Wow!

Those are lots of places. Interesting.

But it must be hard if the family can't come with him.

Anonymous said...

It must be hard to be a military family, but I suppose there are some times when you feel proud to be a military family. God Bless you in your endeavours.
Good TT - thanks for sharing it. And thanks for popping in at mine.

Nathalie said...

I would be so scared if my husband was in the army...

Darla said...

That's quite a few deployments! You have my sympathy. My husband spent 9 months in Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia, but that's it. So far. (crossing my fingers here)

Don't you just love the formal uniforms? Carl needs new dress blues, but they're threatening to change the style, so he's waiting. I suspect he just doesn't want to deal with getting it tailored. ;)

The Mistress of the Dark said...

My best friend's hubby is in the military here in the US and they've been stationed in Hawaii, Japan, Korea, the State of Washington in just about 10 years. And he's done several tours of duty in Iraq lately.

Happy TT

Anonymous said...

Wooow, that's a lot of places! Frohe Weihnachten and happy TT:)

Tink said...

He looks very handsome in "Mess Kit"! He has an impressive career, you must be very proud of him!
Thanks for visiting my TT.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy reading your blog...as an (ugly?) American, I must say that I am embarrassingly unaware of the Canadian military. My husband has always traveled for business, but I have always been able to count on a phone call at least daily (more often now with cell phones). I can't imagine being in a situation where you don't hear anything at all. Thanks for visiting my 80's themed TT this week! Hope you enjoyed my e-mail explaining the crazy phenomenon of Luke and Laura!

Anonymous said...

Delete link? Does anyone know why my name comes up with (delete link) after it? If so, please let me know.

Sonny said...

Nice uniforms!
Happy TT!

Greetings from Germany,
Sonny

Anonymous said...

You must be so proud of your husband. He is indeed a brave man, and a true patriot!

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

Thank you to your husband for helping to take care and protect all of us. He has been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Thanks for sharing and happy TT.

Darla said...

Hey, Caylynn--responding to your comment on somebody else's TT about visiting Italy--if you weren't already aware, as Canadian military, you can use the US Army campground/hotel at Camp Darby, which is near Pisa. It's a wonderfully inexpensive place to use as a base for sightseeing trips.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's quite a list! I guess you really don't have too much time for it to get ho-hum before it changes again huh?

thanks for the visit this morning - by the way the ma'am and sir issue - I found out that not everyone considers this respectful when I was in college up near Chicago. I don't get it either but my kids will still be saying it!

Unknown said...

Wow... so many places. An amazing carreer. Hopefully you never have to be seperated on Christmas again...


Happy TT form Duisburg,

S.

P.S.: A special thanks to your husband for all those peacekeeping and combat missions!

Debbie said...

amazing, you are very lucky. i love the red uniform too.

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's awesome! You must be so proud of him. My youngest daughter is getting deployed to Iraq next year and has to go to Georgia first, to train with the group she getting deployed with. So I'll be going back to Hawaii to be with my grand-daughter.

I'm up too.

Anonymous said...

Always so interesting!

Thanks for sharing!

John Holland said...

A military life is an interesting one. My Dad was in the Navy for twenty five years and we moved around a bit, never overseas. He served time overseas before he was married.

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

I salute your husband... What a distinguished career...

Anonymous said...

Wow, some of those were difficult postings. Canada is lucky to have such great service people.

Carmen said...

he's been all over! I hope he got to appreciate visiting some of those places in addition to defending his nation!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what great travels for both of you!

And wonderful pics. Thanks for sharing.

And thanks for visiting my TT! :-)

Twyla said...

Wow...that's quite a list. Will your hubby be home this Christmas?
Thanks for stopping by my TT. :-)

Unknown said...

I know this is sad, but I had no idea of all the different places where our troops have bee sent, and where we're involved. Makes you realize the public should be taking more of an interest in what our military is doing for the rest of the world.

Anonymous said...

I rarely even leave my state! I can't even imagine going to all those places.

Happy TT and thanks for stopping by!

Domestic Goddess said...

I totally admire wives and families of the military, as well as those serving. I can't imagine doing it myself but, GO TEAM!!

Deb @ Sugarfused said...

Goodness! He's been all over the world...what an important and educational career he's had!
I don't know how military families do it...my hat's off to you both!

Anonymous said...

That's a lot for such a young guy!

Anonymous said...

Your husband is quite decorated. I was in the Air Force here in the states for a short stint. Never saw the red Mess Dress before, thank you so much for sharing.

Happy TT

Dane Bramage said...

Wow. He's been around!

thanks for visiting my Thursday Thirteen #19 Fun Facts About Ohio Edition!

Unknown said...

Wow hubby has certainly been stationed in alot of places. Thanks for sharing them with us.

thanks for stopping by my LJ blog today.

Happy T13!

Melissa H. said...

Wow! That's a lot of duty stations! I'll bet by the time he's done you'll be both glad to be settled and sad to see all the travel slow or even end.

From a US Veteran to a Canadian Serviceman: thanks for what you do.

13 Reasons I'm Thankful for my Mom

Kukka-Maria said...

I commend you not only for living with the stress of having your husband place himself in harms way to protect your country, but for choosing to live such a nomadic life!

Another great TT!

Blog said...

He's been to so many places! You must miss him....

Norma said...

Your posts about Canadian military have been very interesting, and I appreciate his service. Also, how smart of you to take the German course too.

Thanks for visiting my TT.

Crazy Fat Chick said...

I cannot imagine being part of a military family. You and your husband should be proud of him.

EHT said...

Thanks for visiting History Is Elementary. I enjoyed reading your list. Wow, I know you are proud of your husband. He has served and I'm sure he will continue to serve his country well.

Anonymous said...

Looks like quite an interesting career, although I'm sure you're glad he is posted in Germany now instead of somewhere on a peacekeeping/warfare mission. How long has he been in the military?

And I am a Calgary Flames fan, even though I'm from Florida and have never even been to Canada!

Neila said...

Wow! Blessings to you and your husband!

alisonwonderland said...

lots of gratitude to your hubby and others like him around the world!

happy TT!

Julie in Texas said...

A man to be proud of! What a wonderful career.

Thanks for visiting my TT!

Anonymous said...

WOW! He has been everywhere there is something going on.

Do you like Germany?

Loved reading this interesting list.

tiggerprr said...

Wow. I was a military brat so I moved around like that when I was a kid. I know it gets tiresome, but boy I sure miss it sometimes.