Standing on guard over the holidays
For the troops away from home, technology is the best gift of all
By LINDA WHITE, Special to QMI Agency November 24, 2010
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A living nativity scene complete with camels and goats will usher in the holiday season for a group of Canadian Forces (CF) personnel stationed on a peacekeeping mission in Egypt. They’ll enjoy a tree-lighting ceremony and pick up Secret Santa gifts from markets in Cairo and Tel Aviv.
On Christmas Day, they’ll gather with personnel from 12 nations – including Australia and New Zealand – to enjoy a traditional feast of turkey with all the fixings and watch Christmas movies. But the highlight will be connecting with families and friends using technology like Skype, software that will allow them to enjoy an armchair view of festivities back home.
“I remember deployments years ago when we had a token five-minute phone call per week and wrote letters,” says Col. John Roeterink, a father of two. “Nowadays, with Internet, email, Skype and Facebook, it’s just like you’re there.”
He’s leading a team of 28 CF personnel as part of Operation CALUMET, Canada’s participation in the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), an independent peacekeeping operation in the Sinai Peninsula.
MFO will light a Christmas tree in early December. “It’s not really a pine tree. It’s a scrub tree that grows here in the dessert,” says Roeterink. “If we changed the sand for snow then it might be akin to [Nunavut's] Resolute Bay," he says of the vista.
Many of the CF personnel have been deployed to El Gorah – located 16 kilometres from the Israeli border and 37 kilometres southeast of El Arish – for 12 months, returning home in July. Others serve six-month rotations.
Efforts are being made to help half a dozen or so with young children enjoy a few days at home over the holidays. Members of smaller contingents like France and Norway have been invited to celebrate Christmas with their Canadian counterparts.
About 3,000 CF personnel are currently deployed abroad. “Although it is always difficult to be away from family and friends during the holidays, technology has enabled troops to remain in contact with their families,” says Lieut. Len Hickey, media issues officer for the Department of National Defence. “All personnel have Internet access, which permits e-mail, as well as Skype usage.”
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