Heros Remembered - James Gratto - When the Belgian People Left

When the Belgian people were taken, fled out of the country, it was just like walking into a villa. Which is a villa, but it's a house like in Bay Ridge but they call them villas right? You walk into a house and the clothes are still hanging in the closet, a jacket might be still on the back of a chair because all they took was their money or valuables and left. If not, they would have been hacked to death. Link

Canadian Forces in Congo

Collection of interviews with veterans of the Canadian Forces recount their experience of military service in Congo. The veterans of this video are: Bob Terry, Fred LeBlanc, Ed Dubinsky, Ron Knapton, Bert Diamond and James Gratto. Link

Heros Remembered - Ron Knapton - First Impressions of the Congo

Mr. Knapton describes the sights when first arriving in the Congo. Link

Jim Hueglin - Memories of the Congo ONUC

Memories of the Congo ONUC, A work in progress

            I was born on 15 July 1940 in Stratford, Ontario to Mabel Haines and Eugene Hueglin and I have one brother who is three years older than me. My early years were spent in Stratford, Guelph, and Dover Township, Ontario. June and I married on 23 Dec 1961 and we had our first child, Stephen on 22 Dec 1962.

            In 1961 I was unemployed, with a Grade XII education and living with my parents in the countryside outside Chatham, Ontario. No member of my family had ever been in the Canadian military, however, for some unknown reason I had a desire to join the Army so I went on my own to the Recruiting Office in Chatham to inquire about enlisting.

            On 2 February 1961, I was sent to No 7 Personnel Depot in London, Ontario where, after my first military haircut, I participated in various forms of testing to determine whether I was mentally, physically and technically acceptable to join, and what I would be best suited to do.
            On 23 February 1961, I was Taken on Strength of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and underwent six months of basic training at the Royal Canadian Regiment Depot, Wolseley Barracks, in London. My first six months at the Depot involved living four to a room, Kit layouts, frequent inspections, a good deal of marching and saluting and field craft. It was a time when each recruit kept a bayonet and rifle in their clothes locker and, a breach block in their barrack box. My wake up call each morning was a metal pipe being thrown along the terrazzo floor outside my room.

            On completion of Basic Training I was shipped off to the School of Signals in Kingston, Ontario. The initial time in Kingston involved indoctrination training into the way Signals did things, Technical Preparatory Training, and getting to know the other seven individuals who shared my one room, double bunked, living space.

            Following the aforementioned I commenced a long Group 1 training course, in Kingston, as a Teletype & Cipher Equipment Technician, a trade that required that I have a high level security clearance. During the time I was on course June and I married in Chatham. This was not as easy as it sounds since I had to receive my superior's permission to marry and live on the economy and, because of the course I was on, there was some concern that I would be living with someone who did not have a security clearance. As an aside, at the time we married, an Other Rank had to be 21 years old to receive, in addition to a monthly basic pay of $115.00, before deductions, a Marriage Maintenance Allowance of $30.00 and a Subsistence Allowance of $100.00 to help defray the cost of living on the economy.

            On completion of the course I was posted, within the School of Signals, to the teletype maintenance organization (X Tp), that operated out of the Genet Building, working with a memorable group of technicians. Most of this group were solid role models in terms of work and family, however, ... On completion of a Junior NCO Course on 28 March 1963, I was promoted Corporal.

            22 November 1963, the day JFK was assassinated, I was in the Orderly Room in the Forde Building at Vimy Barracks in Kingston signing a document that read that should I not appear for a tour of duty in the Republic of the Congo I would be classified as a deserter. Before deployment June and Stephen moved to live with her parents in Chatham and, as was then required I made a mandatory pay allotment to June of $60.00 per month.

            Our contingent flew via Pisa, Italy in a Yukon, turboprop aircraft, from Trenton, Ontario, to N'idjili airport in Leopoldville, Congo to join other members of 57 Canadian Signals Unit who were already serving there After takeoff from Trenton, with this being the first time I had flown, it was somewhat disconcerting when the pilot feathered the engine as the aircraft reached its cruising altitude. The change from the noise of the aircraft labouring  to gain height, to dead silence when it leveled off was a shock I will never forget. In Pisa, along with other tourists, I climbed the Leaning Tower and, later in the day watched others from our contingent trying to pass Canadian Tire money off as legal Canadian currency at the hotel where we were billeted. When we landed at the airport in Leopoldville, the aircraft door opened and the smell and atmosphere of Africa came wafting in.

            In  the course of my deployment my time was split between Leopoldville and Elizabethville. Leopoldville, being a city at an elevation of 240 m, some 515 km inland from, and East of the Atlantic Ocean and 480 km south of the Equator was hot, humid and rainy. Life there was quite routine in many ways. I climbed up and down seven flights of stairs more than once a day since the elevator in our quarters did not work.  There were about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. It rained everyday at about the same time. I had access to a community swimming pool that was always as warm as tea. Off duty life centred around the wet canteen and its liquor and Polar beer; an outdoor area where movies were shown at night on a large screen; buying local Franks on the black market with the Canadian $10 bill June mailed to me in a magazine; an occasional trip downtown to the ivory market area to buy souvenirs such as a jewellery box, mask, spear or Katanga cross; or a walk along the Congo River to watch the locals in dugout canoes or view the statues of King Leopold and Stanley.

            I walked everyday to and from my quarters to my place of work in the UN Headquarters Building (Athenee Royale). I stood guard on occasion outside our quarters with an unloaded weapon. I worked the day shift in a maintenance shop above the tape relay centre along with some of the same people I had worked with in X Tp and I mostly chummed around with a fellow by the name of Bob Leckie.

            My work dress was a blue beret, armlets with rank, Corps and Unit designation, an Indian Bush shirt, khaki shorts, a web belt and buckle, knee high socks and suede jungle boots. You could tell you had been in theatre for awhile if you had hair on your knees from not wearing long pants.

            Other fond memories include buying a Phillips tape recorder and short wave radio; recording Congolese music; listening to CBC Radio International as The Beatles arrived in North America and the Bonaventure headed for Cyprus transporting Canadian troops. Other less fond memories include Wally Shannon, the SSM, who insisted we play what came to be called "Wally Ball" (at one time his wife was Head Waitress at the Vimy Officer's Mess); only getting milk when the next Yukon flight arrived; seeing people eating from the kitchen waste area outside our mess hall; and witnessing the local police arresting young people, throwing them into the back of a vehicle and carting them off to jail.

            The teletype equipment we maintained were electromechanical in design and included the Teletype Corporation Model 15 teleprinter and the Model 28 teleprinter, perforator/reperforator combination; and the Kleinschmidt TT-4 teleprinter. These were all mid 1900's pieces of equipment that were widely used in the US and Canadian military and that, for the most part, were easy to maintain. The Model 15 and Model 28 lent themselves to static installations in message centres whereas the TT-4 was a portable piece of equipment that was well suited to field use. I, however, can remember one instance when it took me a great deal of time to repair a singularly frustrating TT-4. The Typex cipher machine used was a variation of an electromechanical device, with changeable rotors, that first came into use with the British military prior to WW II. It was big, bulky and, I believe, weighed about 120 lbs. To the best of my knowledge it required a good deal of operator maintenance and was time consuming to operate. After my return I heard a tale that for security reasons, and since there was no value in bringing them home, all the in-theatre Typex machines were dropped out of an aircraft into the Congo river.

            Quarters were primitive as I lived on the seventh floor of an apartment building with no operating elevator, no laundry facilities, cots with tin cans filled with liquid to deter creatures from climbing in to bed with you and ants continuously streaming up and down the building, foraging for everything they could carry away. Our laundry was collectively stomped on in a bath tub by a houseboy and sun dried on the roof of our quarters. There was no need for starch when they were ironed because of the residual salt they contained.

            Elizabethville, being a city at an elevation of 1208 m, some 1570 km by air inland to the East of Leopoldville, and 1300 km south of the Equator, was cooler and drier than Leopoldville. Life there was quite different and getting there and back was hair-raising. On the flight to Elizabethville it took the pilot three tries to get the plane airborne; that is to say he roared it down the runway, realized that he could not lift it off, aborted the takeoff and taxied back to his starting point and tried again.  On the return flight some months later, on a stop at one of the other detachments, the plane came in to land, bounced when it hit the runway, took off again and circled around before making a safe landing. As I recall, the plane was a Douglas DC-3 flown by civilian pilots hired by the UN.

Once in Elizabethville life became routine once again, but in a different way. I lived with other detachment members in a ground level villa. We had our own French Canadian cook and the houseboy, and his family, lived in a small dwelling behind the villa. The local UN Headquarters building was a short walk away and getting there and back offered an opportunity to interact with the local community and practice basic Kiswahili such as Jambo, habari gani, habari nzuri, misouri kapisa, umke na watoto howa jambo. The houseboy was not adverse to inviting me into his family home and introducing me to a local dish of manioc and beef in Pili-Pili sauce. Since practising my trade did not occupy all my time, my secondary duty was to assist our cook on ration runs. This involved trips with him to the local market to buy fresh food using our own transportation, and dealings with Indian and Pakistani troops who collectively ran the local UN Rations Depot and provided transportation to the Depot and back. What was most interesting about this situation was that, notwithstanding the hostility that then existed between India and Pakistan, the troops got along very well. Often, after a ration run our cook would wind up bartering the UN supplied food, e.g. canned bully beef, for local produce. Local sights included giant ant hills, malachite mines, and the local zoo and its chain smoking chimpanzee.

            I arrived back in Trenton on Thursday, 28 May 1964. Rather than quarantine us  for the weekend at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Ontario we were told to report back on the following Monday for post deployment medical examination for, among other things, parasites. I think we all welcomed the chance to immediately see our family, however, It made no sense then, and it still doesn't. At the time, June and Stephen were staying in Preston, Ontario with my brother and his wife so I hitchhiked there for the weekend. When I was dropped off on the highway outside Preston I was hungry so, before heading off on foot to find my brother's house, I stopped at a restaurant and bought a piece of cherry pie to satisfy a craving I had.

            During my post deployment leave, June, Stephen and I stayed with June's parents in Chatham. Shortly after we started staying with them my barrack box arrived at the local Customs Office. After clearing customs, and bringing It to June's parent's house, I opened my barrack box and, lo and behold, out wafted the smell of Africa. From the money we saved during my deployment to the Congo June and I purchased a used Volkswagen Beetle and a Vilas kitchen table and four chairs. We still have the table.

So endeth the story.

James Edward Lankin

James Edward Lankin, CD 02 June 1941 - 06 July 2011

     James Edward (Ed) Lankin was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member and Past President of the LCpl David W. Young Chapter, Courtland, Ontario.

     Ed joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals as a Radio Operator in July 1957 and served until his release in September 1977.

     Ed completed a United Nations tour of duty with United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I) from 1960 to 1961 in Gaza, Egypt. He then completed a tour with the United Nations Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in Nicosia, Cyprus from 1967 to 1968. Ed did a second tour of duty with United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) in Cairo, Egypt from 1972 to 1973. He was also part of the NATO forces in Soest, Germany from 1962 to 1965.

May He Rest in Peace

Daniel Alexander Russ

Daniel Alexander Russ, OMM, CD 11 August 1940 - 17 January 2011

     Daniel Alexander Russ was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member of the National Headquarters Chapter, Ottawa, Ontario.

     Daniel joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in August 1956 and served until his release in 1981.

     Daniel completed United Nations tour of duty in 1960 with 57 Canadian Signals Unit with the United Nations Organization in Congo (ONUC); with 56 Canadian Signal Squadron in Egypt with United Nations Emergency Force I (UNEF I) in 1964 - 1965 and with the Damascus Signal Troop with United Nations Disengagement Observation Force Golan Heights (UNDOF) in 1978 - 1979.

     Daniel also served with the 709 Toronto Communication Reserve Regiment upon his release from the Regular Force.

     Daniel was also a member of the Hamilton Ontario Signals Association and the Royal Hamilton Military Institute.

May He Rest in Peace

Joseph Henry Haywood

Joseph Henry Haywood 24 July 1933 - 08 June 2012

     Joseph Henry Haywood was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member of LGen R.R. Crabbe Chapter, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

     Joseph joined the Canadian Army (Regular) in May 1951 and served in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals until his release in May 1968.

     He completed a tour with the United Nations Organization in Congo (ONUC) in 1963.

     Joseph was also a member of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association, Royal Canadian Legion, Norwood St. Boniface Branch, Manitoba and an Honoray Member of Korea Veterans Association of Canada Inc, Tommy Prince M.M. Unit 76, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

May He Rest in Peace

Fergus Powers

Fergus Power, CD 30 August 1935 - 08 July 2015

     Fergus Power was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member in the Kingston Limestone Chapter, Kingston, Ontario.

     Fergus joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in November 1958 and served until his retirement in August 1980.

     He completed United Nations tours with United Nations Organization in Congo (ONUC) during the period February 1962 to December 1962. He completed a tour with the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) during the period October 1973 to May 1974 and he completed a tour with United Nations Emergency Force (Middle East) during the period June 1979 to February 1980.

     He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 560, Kingston, Ontario.

May He Rest in Peace

Gary A.E. Vanstone

Gary A.E. Vanstone, CD 03 May 1937 - 01 July 2013

     Gary A.E. Vanstone was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member of the MGen Lewis W. MacKenzie Chapter, Sydney, NS.

     Gary joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in July 1953 and served with 1st Army Signals, Canadian Forces Station Alert, Canadian Forces Station Masset and Canadian Forces Station Carp. Gary was released in November 1985.

     Gary Vanstone served a United Nations Tour with the United Nations Organization in the Congo.

     Gary was also a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

May He Rest in Peace

Harold Frederick Norman Smith

Harold Frederick Norman Smith, CD Passed Away - 02 March 2014

     Harold Smith was a Charter Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Founding Member of the Kingston Limestone Chapter, Kingston, Ontario.

     Harold joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (RCCS) in August 1956 and served 28 years in the Land Element until his release in 1986.

     Harold completed a tour with the United Nations Emergency Force in Egypt with 56 Canadian Signal Squadron during the period April 1958 to April 1959.

May He Rest in Peace

James M. Cameron

James M. Cameron, CD 15 June 1938 - 23 November 2014

     James M. Cameron was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member in the Prince Edward Island Chapter, Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

     James joined the Canadian Army in January 1956 and served until his retirement in March1985.

     He completed United Nations tours with United Nations Emergency Force with the Royal Canadian Signals Squadron, Rafah, Egypt during the period February 1966 to February 1967. He also served with 73 Service Battalion located at Ismailya, Egypt during the period April 1979 to October 1979.

     He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 17, Wellington, Prince Edward Island.

May He Rest in Peace

Loyd Harold Carr

Lloyd Harold Carr, CD 14 January 1942 - 25 May 2014

     Lloyd H. Carr was a Member of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was a Member of the Colonel John Gardam Chapter, Ottawa, Ontario.

     Lloyd joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in June 1958 and served in the Land Element until his release.

     Lloyd completed tours with the United Nations Organization in Congo with the Canadian Signal Squadron during the period April 1962 to April 1963. He then completed a tour with the Canadian Contingent United Nations Disengagement Observation Force Golan Heights with 73 Canadian Signal Squadron during the period November 1977 to May 1978. Lloyd also completed a tour with the Canadian Contingent Headquarters, United Nations Disengagement Observation force in Damascus, Syria during the period Jul 1989 to July 1990.

     Lloyd was also an active member of the Ottawa Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

May He Rest in Peace

Heros Remembered - Fred Leblanc

Fred LeBlanc was born on September 5, 1935 in Moncton, New Brunswick. Having trouble finding a job, he decided to join the Royal Canadian Signal Corps. He remembers convincing his mother to sign the permission slip because he was only 17and a half. After three months of training Mr. LeBlanc had to leave for brain surgery. He believes he was lucky it happened while he was in training because he probably would not have survived if it had happened during civilian life. In 1953 he went to Kingston,Ontario his first time away from home. Mr. LeBlanc was trained as a as a teletype operator and eventually became a cryptographer. With young children and a wife back home Mr. LeBlanc was posted to Congo for a seven month tour.

1. History of the Congo
2. What the Congo was
3. Victims of a Congolese Attack