Phone Cards for Family

While we were there we did have a communication which the military provided with us, was phone cards to call your family, you know, twice a week and make sure that, you know, you’re in contact with them and make sure that, you know, you have a good esprit back and forth with them and saying what’s going on with your family. Plus on top of that, you could buy more cards that you could talk to your family and everything like that. So one of the things are, I talked to my family every night for 10 minutes so I went and bought extra phone cards, which was very expensive, but like I said, it worked out fine because it balanced out because I always talked to my family to see what was going on. And like I said, you go through a stage that you have a numbness that one of the things are that I made sure that was my family was back home safe, like I said at the start, safe with family where I could do my job in a safe manner and not worry about them and on the same thing is, what they were seeing on the news, I said don’t pay attention to the news unless you don’t hear from me. And one of the things are if something comes up on the on the TV, saying, talking about Doha, Qatar, that’s when you worry about it. Because like I said, we’re in a safe haven when we are far enough away from the warfront but yet we were there for support because one of the things are, we were there for the F-18’s and the F-18’s and the Canadian Air Force and plus we are under the umbrella with the Americans and plus we had the Brits that were with us so we had a strategic air force base with three units on there. So out of that same sequence of events, we’re far enough away but we are close enough that something could happen.

Mr. Hynes speaks of the convenience of phone cards as a necessary connection with loved ones back home.

Gerald Hynes

Mr. Gerald “Jerry” Hynes was born October 6, 1963 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Following in his father’s footsteps, Mr. Hynes decided to join the navy and take on the trade of cook. Spending 27 years in the military, Mr. Hynes lived in Germany with his family and during this time in service, was provided an opportunity to join the contingent going to Persian Gulf War. Mr. Hynes expresses his pride for the service he gave to our Country, now retired from the military he resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.