Pakistan A Very Difficult Mission

Heroes Remember

Pakistan A Very Difficult Mission

Transcript

Pakistan was difficult in a number of ways. First of all it was a difficult mission. And it took us a little while to really understand where we truly fit in to the UN perspective of the mission, but it was difficult as well because everybody there, all of the UN nations were unarmed. And I say that tongue and cheek. The Americans were clearly not unarmed. There were two contingents of Americans, America 1 and America 2, that’s what we call our houses, Canada House, America 1, America 2, Kiwi House, Aussie House and Norway House. The Americans were armed and they were armed to the teeth. They were all special forces guys out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, very well trained, very competent soldiers and that’s travelling around the world, winning the hearts and minds theory of the day was their forte. Their particular skills in soldiering, I don’t think, other than certainly their knowledge of mines and explosives and all that was no where by any stretch better than ours. I think from that part we were better. They were higher trained in covert operations because that’s what they specialized in and they did participate in covert operations, sending teams into Afghanistan the whole time we were on a mission. None of them got caught. A French contingent a year before got caught and they were fired out of the country for military espionage within 24 hours. Once we understood what all the other missions were capable of doing and not doing, and how professional each of us were then that made a difference, yeah, so we understood where we fit with the others.

Description

Mr. Deveau provides his opinion of the type of mission and understanding how they fit in with the other contingents.

Jerry Deveau

Mr. Jerry Deveau was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia on November 20, 1950. Looking for excitement, Mr. Deveau believed he was up for a reasonable challenge in life and decided to join the Canadian Forces. Mr. Deveau joined the Army and after going through a personnel selection unit held occupation of Combat Engineer. In 1990, Mr. Deveau participated in his first operational tour to Pakistan and in 1994 accepted another tour to Rwanda as Chief Warrant Officer. At the end of his military career, Mr. Deveau held rank of Major. Mr. Deveau became employed as a Peer Support Coordinator with the OSISS (Occupational Stress Injury Social Support) program, a federal government network that provides support for military personnel returning to civilian life. Mr. Deveau resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick with his family.

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