MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 26 Jan 12
- Afghanistan (1) A more complete explanation of a YouTube video that isn’t what some nut job says it is.
- Afghanistan (2) A Canadian officer on why it’s important that Afghan troops being trained need to be able to read and write, even just a bit. “…. Imagine what happens when a soldier who cannot read or count gets an order to collect 20 boxes of ammunition from a truck with the plate number AB55519Q. Unable to recognize letters and numbers, the bewildered soldier would not be able to complete this basic task. Barely 15 percent of ANA recruits can read or write at Grade One level. By the time they have completed eight weeks of BWT, nearly 90 percent have learned to read and write at that basic level. This may not seem like a great achievement by Canadian standards but, considering where these soldiers begin, it is significant. Literacy training is also a recruiting tool, attracting Afghans who want an education that is not readily available outside the Army ….”
- Afghanistan (3) The story behind one of the medals being awarded at the G-G’s place today – well done all!
- Afghanistan (4) Orchestral music (and words) to honour the Afghan mission. “It’s the Calgary Philharmonic’s biggest commission so far: a war requiem aimed at capturing some of the drama, heartbreak and profound loss that is the Canadian battle for peace in one of the most wartorn areas in the world. When completed, the hour-long piece, provisionally entitled Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, will embrace the combined musical forces of the orchestra, the CPO Chorus, the Cantare Children’s Choir and four soloists. It’s set to debut Nov. 10 …. The words of inspiration for Ryan’s music come from poems, diary entries and blogs written by established Vancouver writer Suzanne Steele, one of five Canadian artists — and the first poet — to be chosen as an official “war artist” in the Canadian Forces Artist Program ….”
- MORE Canadian sanctions against Syria!
- Naval Espionage Case Ya think?!? “Expert: Spy case worries military”
- One former officer’s opinion: “…. Canada’s regular army is currently too small to carry out assigned domestic and overseas tasks. Not to have any mobilization capability to expand it in time of crisis or emergency would thus be strategic folly …. The history of increasing army reserve strength has also been marked by foot-dragging. The current government must now recognize that regular forces are too small to achieve its domestic and international goals and embrace the concept of a strategic reserve as the only affordable option.”
- More on Canada-U.S. co-operation deals: “Canada and the U.S. have finalized one agreement and renewed another to better co-ordinate civilian and military forces against threats. Defence Minister Peter MacKay, speaking Tuesday night to a group of defence officials, diplomats and civil servants, said the two countries were expected Wednesday to renew the Civil Assistance Plan and sign off on the Combined Defence Plan. His office confirmed Wednesday they had been signed. The civil assistance agreement lets military personnel and equipment deploy rapidly to humanitarian events, MacKay said in notes prepared for his speech to the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. “In the event of floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, or to assist in the aftermath of a terrorist attack — military members from one nation will be ready to support the armed forces of the other, all supporting lead civilian agencies,” he said. The defence agreement sets out the authority and means for the two countries to approve homeland military operations against threats, as well as the process for sharing information ….” More here.
- Way Up North “Firefighters at Canadian Forces Station Alert in the Arctic are anxiously awaiting a special delivery. On Tuesday, Jan. 31, Sgt. Steve Lewington — the fire chief there until Feb. 15 — will receive the first of three brand new KME Force air-deployable crash trucks (or aircraft rescue fire fighting trucks) being delivered aboard either a C-130J Hercules or C-17 Globemaster to the Arctic station to replace the current Oshkosh T-1000 trucks that were delivered to the northern military station in March 2010 ….”
- What’s Canada Buying? Someone to provide “remediation activities at the FOX-E Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Site on Durban Island and the former US Coast Guard Weather Station on Padloping Island, Nunavut.” Previous MERX listing (July 2011) here.
- F-35 Tug o’ War F-35 sales team shares small-town paper’s coverage of all the benefits of the program.
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- Former African AQ prisoner Robert Fowler speaks to the BBC (.mp3, first 10 minutes) about being held hostage for about five months. Fowler on his kidnappers/AQ: “It’s all about religion. I think among ‘securocrats’, there’s somewhat of a debate about whether these guys are bandits flying an Islamic flag of convenience or rather, they are some kind of twisted, latter-day Robin Hoods doing a little banditry and kidnapping to fund their jihad. I think a lot of people would like to believe it’s the former, but I know it’s the second.”
- Minister MacKay: Way to go CF blood donors!
- “On a spring day in the hills near Valencia, Jules Paivio stood before a firing squad. The young Canadian was a long way from home, the woods of Northern Ontario, but he was ready to meet death. He had known when he volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, in the fall of 1936, that he probably wouldn’t return alive. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, Mr. Paivio and several fellow prisoners raised their fists in a show of defiance. But a sudden stroke of luck saved his life. In fact, Mr. Paivio came out of the war unscathed. Today, he is the last surviving Canadian brigadista – one of the men and women who came from around the world to defend Spain’s fledgling republic from the fascism of General Francisco Franco. More than 1,500 Canadians joined these International Brigades, but for decades they received little recognition. They had fought in a conflict in which their government took no part, and most were committed socialists, viewed with suspicion during the Cold War. Even today, their contributions to one of the 20th century’s great battles against tyranny is often overlooked here. But Spain has not forgotten. On Thursday, it will honour Mr. Paivio by granting him citizenship at a ceremony in Toronto ….” More on the man here and here, with a bit of a documentary on him here.
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