Standing guard in Western Europe

The Canadian Armed Forces street banner for Western Europe is pretty cool. It shows an aviator in the front, while behind him a tank is leaving an old town and a jet plane soars overhead. I think it does a great job of highlighting our country’s efforts in that part of Europe from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Thousands of Canadian service members, along with their armoured vehicles and warplanes, were based there for decades to help keep another world war from breaking out.

I am a big Canadian bear so I know how to be strong. But our soldiers, aviators and sailors who served in Western Europe and on the Atlantic Ocean had a special kind of strength. They had to constantly watch for trouble and protect people’s freedom for over 40 years!

It wasn’t easy for other reasons, too. The Canadians stationed at military bases in West Germany and France often spent several years far from home. But one good thing I learned was that our service members could take their families overseas to live with them. Can you imagine growing up and going to school in Europe because your mom or dad was in the Canadian Armed Forces? Talk about the field trip of a lifetime!