Observing the Green Line

If you looked under “monotony” you would find a solider on an observation post in Cyprus. When we got there, that’s not to say it wasn't dangerous at certain points during the time Canada was in Cyprus, it certainly was, certainly during the invasion in ’74. Canadians were on the ground then. By the time I arrived, the environment had gotten relatively benign. We didn’t know that at the time, we didn’t really think that way at the time looking back on it, of course, now we know it. But a typical day for a solider is depending on what shift you were on because the observation posts were manned 24 hours, seven days a week. So you would get up in the morning for your particular shift or in the evening or whenever your time was and you would have an inspection and looking good was very important back in those days. Your boots were shined, your uniform was ironed even your UN cap was rigidly starched. You would have your inspection, make sure you knew your duties, jumped on a truck and then you would be driven out to your observation post where you and one other team member would occupy the observation post and your shifts could be anywhere from eight to twelve hours depending on the location of the observation post and you were donig exactly as the title would indicate, you were observing. So you would watch the Turks, the Turkish line, you would watch the Greek Cypriot line and you would watch for any change in the positions - the addition of a sandbag, the movement of a vehicle and all of that had to be reported and the idea and the concept behind it which we were quite sensitive to was that any movement of that type or improvement in the position could provoke a nasty response from the opposite side of the line. So all of that was reported back to headquarters and then they took action of the change of command on either side so that was really your day's work. You recorded everything down, reported any changes in the line and waited for your shift change to be over.

Mr. Bradley details a daily routine while occupying an observation post on the green line.

Daniel Bradley

Mr. Daniel Bradley was born June 24, 1958 in Ottawa, Ontario. At 18 years of age, walking by a recruiting centre, Mr. Bradley made an impulsive decision to join the military having a desire for the infantry. Mr. Bradley became a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment holding rank as an infanteer and obtained training at CFB Cornwallis in Trenton, Ontario. After training, Mr. Bradley spent a bit of time In Canada service but in 1978 experienced his first operational deployment to Cyrpus. In 1992 Mr. Bradley was given another opportunity to deploy to Somalia and joined a contingency from the RCR and became part of the Airborne Regiment where he held rank of Chief Warrant Officer. As his military career continued Mr. Bradley was part of an operational to Croatia in 1994, Bosnia in 1997 and more recently 2002/03 travelled to Afghanistan on two different operations, one being Roto O as Company Sergeant Major. Mr. Bradley retired in 2011 with 35 years of military sevice.