Peacekeeping Operations

Heroes Remember

Peacekeeping Operations

Transcript

Well, I always enjoyed experiencing new places. Cyprus was very exciting with a very interesting history. We had only been back from Germany for six months by the time we deployed to Cyprus, well perhaps a year. So our battalion was still very much combat oriented. The peacekeeping is a completely different, was a completely different ball game in those days because your terms of engagement were very much reduced. You couldn’t intervene to protect the local populous for example unless you were personally being threatened yourself. So that was pretty difficult for soldiers who had been trained to fight on the European battlefield, you know, and I assume that it still is today although the rules are changing a little bit more in their favour but I am one of the people who strongly feel that peacekeeping should only be a secondary function of any military organization and you cannot keep the peace with soldiers who are not trained and prepared to go to a real war.

Description

Mr. Kelly provides his opinion on the role and responsibilities of peacekeepers during a deployment.

Michael Kelly

Mr. Michael Kelly was born January 1940 in Sudbury, Ontario. Being active in the Cadet Program as a youngster, Mr. Kelly always held the idea that he would pursue a career in the military. Once of age, Mr. Kelly joined the Officer Candidate Plan School of Infantry at Camp Borden. Graduating as an officer, he accepted deployments overseas including Germany and Cyprus. Upon retirement from the army, Mr. Kelly held rank of major. After military service, he became quite involved in many organizations and worked with UNICEF and World Food Program in East Timor. Mr. Kelly has great pride in his membership with The Black Watch Regiment and is presently the president of the Upper Canada Branch of the Black Watch Association in Ottawa. He now resides in Ottawa with his wife Erica.

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