PK 75 || an Anthology of Personal Peacekeeping Experiences

1 PK 75 || An Anthology of Personal Peacekeeping Experiences Background the environment for peacekeeping success, without ever The year 2023 will mark two peacekeeping milestones — the completing a mission themselves, whether it be working within 75th anniversary of the first United Nations (UN) peacekeeping Foreign Affairs or at NDHQ, or on theatre activation teams, operation (UNTSO), and the 35th anniversary of the Nobel Peace or in supporting roles but outside the UN, MFO, NATO, or AU Prize for UN Peacekeepers. Both anniversaries offer an ideal construct. Many of their contributions had a huge impact on opportunity to recognize and celebrate Canada’s amazing peacekeeping, and their stories deserve to be recognized. contributions to world peace, and especially the personal To be completed in early 2023, the anthology will be contributions of the thousands of Canadians who participated distributed freely with the intent to educate young people as in peacekeeping operations around the globe. well as to enhance public awareness of Canada’s longstanding contribution to peacekeeping. As such, schools and universities will be key target audiences and recipients of the anthology, as will institutions, media outlets, government Departments, military and police organizations, relevant humanitarian organizations, public figures of influence, and industries with a connection to peacekeeping. Your Contribution It will be your individual stories that will help form the essential heart of the project and your writings and photographs that will bring the Anthology to life. Should you be interested in being one of those featured in the Anthology, we will need you to do some writing about yourself. Specifically, we will be devoting a two-page spread to you and your story, beginning with a personal narrative telling something interesting, educational, and fascinating about your The Project To that end, the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association (CPVA) is developing an Anthology of the personal experiences of representative Canadian peacekeepers. It will focus on Canada’s historic contributions to peacekeeping through the eyes of individual Canadian peacekeepers and those who have significantly impacted and enabled their efforts. Although the Anthology is not due to be finalized until 2023, we will provide a sampling or ‘mini-Anthology’ within upcoming issues of The Blue Beret. The Anthology will be a high quality, digital publication containing short biographies, photographs and experiential anecdotes written by, or about, ordinary Canadians with peacekeeping experience, whether they be military, police, or civilian. We are also including folks who helped set Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association || Project PK75: Stories of our Keepers of Peace 2 focus on your career highlights, especially as they pertain to peacekeeping. Be sure to detail which peacekeeping missions you were involved with, and in what capacity. 5. Personal anecdote — the anecdote should not exceed 700 words. 6. This is where your personal experience(s) should shine, as you tell an interesting tale or anecdote that you personally recall. It can be funny or serious, good or bad, positive or negative, personal or professional, but hopefully will help readers learn and understand more about what an individual peacekeeper experiences on deployment. 7. Photos — we need at least three photos, and more if you have them, to give our production team several to choose from. One should be a recent head and shoulders shot, peacekeeping experiences, followed by a factual, narrative and the others would preferably also be of you while serving on biography stressing peacekeeping experience. Each set of peacekeeping missions. The better the quality, and higher the biography and anecdotes will be accompanied by at least three resolution, the better. photographs, including a recent head and shoulders shot, and 8. Captions — each photo must be accompanied by a two photographs of you, the peacekeeper, while on one or description of it, providing the where, what, who, and when. If more peacekeeping missions. there is a special significance, especially if it relates directly to We encourage you to participate, and here are the details you your anecdote, please also explain that. If you can, provide the will need to know: information in the style of a photo caption. If not, we will do that 1. Due dates for submission of all your material — the earlier for you. Attribution is important so, to give credit where it is due, the better, but please not later than 1 July 2021. if you know who took the photo, please provide the name and, 2. Biography — the narrative portion of the bio should not exceed 750 words. 3. Within your bio, please include your hometown and province or the town and province where you currently reside, your rank, retired or still serving, Regular Force or Reserve, classification or trade, regiment, corps, ships, squadrons, HQ positions, etc., post-nominals (e.g. MMM, CD, RN, BA, etc.), lists of all medals and decorations, peacekeeping missions and non-peacekeeping operations, and any other pertinent information. 4. Preferably that information would be provided in two formats. One would be a simple, factual listing of the information to be used primarily by the Editorial team, while the second would include the information in narrative format that is understandable and interesting for civilian readers of all ages — our target audiences. Please avoid acronyms or military slang, and Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association || Project PK75: Stories of our Keepers of Peace 3 Photos used on pages 1 through 3 courtesy Canadian Forces Combat Camera. if available, that person’s contact information in case we — or For more information, please contact CPVA at: you — need to obtain their permission to use the photo. Layout and production: Don MacPherson, 9. Language — you may provide your contributions in President of CPVA and Editor of The Blue Beret either French or English (or both). Although the final version of [email protected] or (613) 539-5876 the Anthology will be bilingual, unfortunately we did not have the time or resources to translate this first set of contributions, Project development: Greg Mitchell, so they have been published in the authors’ preferred language. CPVA Special Advisor, Peacekeeping 10. Technical Instructions: [email protected] or (705) 930-9230 a. All written contributions should be done in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 12-point font. CPVA Membership/VAC Advisory Group: Ray Kokkonen, b. Photos should be scanned and sent electronically CPVA Representative to VAC Commemoration Advisory Group as attachments to an e-mail that should also include the [email protected] or (506) 627-0217 caption information. Be sure to clearly identify which photo links to which caption information. c. Everything should be sent by e-mail to Greg Mitchell, preferably all together attached to one message, at [email protected]. d. Due date — as early as possible, but not later than 1 July 2021. Thank you for your interest in becoming a contributor to this Peacekeeper Anthology project and please confirm your commitment, by email, at your earliest convenience. Lastly, regardless of whether you decide to contribute to this Anthology, we at CPVA thank you for your peacekeeping service, and would be delighted if you would consider joining our organization. Thank you and best regards, Greg Mitchell Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association || Project PK75: Stories of our Keepers of Peace 4 TORONTO, ON, CANADA Michael Goodspeed South Sudan || 2005–2006 he job I found myself in the earliest days of the UN mission Tin South Sudan was an absorbing one. There was lots to do, and it allowed for plenty of travel and daily interaction with the two belligerent armies. It was without question the most interesting and rewarding professional work I’ve ever done. I was the Deputy Chief of Staff and worked with twelve other officers in The Joint Monitoring & Coordination Office (JMCO). The JMCO did the groundwork for the development and coordination of overall ceasefire policy as well as hammered out with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and Sudanese Armed Forces all those military issues that could not be resolved regionally. The JMCO was wisely positioned well forward, in the heart of the most southerly state. We were connected across the country by satellite links with mobile phones, radios and the Internet. Unfortunately, the SAF and the SPLA did not have the kinds of communication capabilities we had, and it made quite a difference in their ability to react and to pass on information to their more remotely deployed troops. This was particularly true of the SPLA who were quite literally moving from being a hardscrabble guerrilla movement to something resembling a In Sudan in 2005, in addition to his job as a military observer, LCol Goodspeed modern army, and although they were trying their hardest, the voluntarily initiated a project to help orphaned children. The photo shows Michael problems they faced were enormous. in front of an orphanage in Juba with crippled and undernourished boys. On his own From an operational viewpoint the mission was extremely initiative Michael adopted the orphanage and succeeded in getting it registered as a “UN complex. Both sides were highly factionalized and there were Quick Impact Project.” In war torn Sudan, orphaned boys were considered an unwelcome numerous competing interests within the theatre — not all of social burden and were rarely adopted and routinely overlooked by the country’s over- which were immediately evident to us. Tribalism, oil, religion, stressed and inadequate social services. Goodspeed organized UN engineers to repair ethnicity, dozens of different local languages, established their building and coordinated with NGOs and UN agencies to ensure these children power groups such as the police and intelligence services, were housed, fed, clothed, given medical care and rudimentary schooling. private militias as well as the influence of border states and other neighbouring insurgencies all combined to make the simplest on how urgent things should be, different thinking on hierarchy, issue complex.

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