# Cyprus casualties remembered



## bossi (2 Jul 2004)

*Far away, our heroes*
Ceremony honours Canadian servicemen who fell in Cyprus
By Menelaos Hadjicostis, special to the Toronto Sun  

TOM JOHNSON planned ahead for the memorial service he couldn't attend 3,000 km away in distant Cyprus. The grizzled 66-year-old resolved to stay awake until 1:30 a.m. on Canada Day, the moment Pipe Maj. Innes Anderson would be playing a lament over the headstones of his fallen comrades buried in Dhekelia Military Cemetery. 

Donning his Royal Canadian Dragoons beret and pinning his service medals to his blazer, the retired master corporal toasted the nine Canadian peacekeepers with a shot of zivania -- the clear, vodka-like spirit he brought back on his last trip to the island eight months ago. 

RAISED A TOAST 

"I managed to stay awake working on the computer till 1:30 a.m., at which time I poured myself a little shot glass of zivania and I toasted Canada Day and the servicemen buried in Cyprus," he wrote from his home in Sackville, N.B., before turning in. 

It was Johnson's trip to the cemetery last October to visit with an old friend buried there that provided the inspiration for the tribute to Canada's forgotten heroes, the first since Ottawa ended its 29-year-old commitment to the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1993. 

The nine, lying side-by-side in the cemetery's studiously manicured lawns, were remembered yesterday. 

One of those paying homage to the soldiers was Royal Canadian Air Force Capt. Dan Zegarac, Canada's sole remaining contribution to UNFICYP. 

"We are forever bound to remember them. They may lie beyond our shores, but they are still remembered by the living. 

"Their memory lives with their families and their communities. The gratitude of our country, what these men gave, will not be forgotten with time." 

NEVER CAME HOME 

The nine, who were killed between 1964 and 1970, were not repatriated because Ottawa's policy at the time was to inter Canadian war dead in the country where they fell. That only changed in 1970, when policy was reversed to bring all war dead back home. 

Canada's Honorary Consul in Cyprus, Eleni Chrysostomides, said she was moved by the brief, but poignant ceremony that was conducted with military precision. 

"Hopefully, this will be a regular occurrence to ensure that the soldiers' memory lives on," Chrysostomides said. 

"It was a very fitting ceremony and a worthwhile opportunity on Canada Day to come together and pay our respects to the Canadian solders who were killed in the line of duty," said British Royal Dragoon Guards Captain Peter Thacker. 

--- 

FALLEN SERVICEMEN 

CANADIAN DRAGOON Trooper Joseph H. Campbell, from Waterford, N.S., lost his life when his Ferret armoured car plunged down a four-metre embankment in the narrow tracks snaking through Cyprus' northern Pentadactylos mountain range. He was among the first Canadians to don the UN blue beret and help quell intercommunal strife that broke out on the island 40 years ago. 

Campbell was buried with full military honours on Aug. 4, 1964, at the Dhekelia cemetery and was posthumously awarded the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Medal last year, the first such medal to be awarded in Canada. 

Also buried at Dhekelia are: Lieut. Kenneth E. Edmonds, who died Dec. 25, 1964, aged 44; Rifleman Perry James Hoare, who died Aug. 14, 1965, aged 25; Lance Cpl. Joseph P. Chartier, Canadian Guards, who died March 14, 1966, aged 20; Pte. Joseph P. E. Bernard, The Black Watch, who died July 9, 1966, aged 23; Trooper Lennard Wain Nass, Canadian Hussars, who died Sept. 27, 1966, aged 24; Cpl. O.J. Redmond, Royal Canadian Regiment, who died March 10, 1967, aged 35; Cpl. K.A. Salmon, Canadian Army Provost Corps, who died on Sept. 27, 1967, aged 31; Pte. T.A. Lerue, who died Feb. 9, 1970, aged 19.

- 30 -

P.S. (interesting that Canada's war dead policy changed in 1970 ... perhaps due to events in Cyprus?)


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## Infanteer (3 Jul 2004)

Interesting point about the change in tradition.  Do you suppose it was because Cypress wasn't "our war?"  I always looked on that Commonwealth tradition as very befitting of a soldier's death, to be buried with his comrades where they lay.  It was something that was ours, as opposed to the American tradition of repatriating the remains to a national cemetary.


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## McG (3 Jul 2004)

I suspect it was because we incured losses at a rate that we could afford to ship them back to Canada and because famlies wanted the bodies burried at home.

The Commonwealth tradition goes back to a time when it was not feasable to bring a body home.


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## Infanteer (3 Jul 2004)

That does make sense.  I couldn't see my family very eager to leave my remains in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Look at the Commonwealth cemetaries in Iraq the Americans repaired.


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