Role in Golan Heights

Heroes Remember

Role in Golan Heights

Transcript

In my case we had Canadians scattered all over the place, it was a tension filled time in Beirut, because of the camp wars. I spent a lot of time in Beirut, usually on the weekends to see how our lads were doing, because you're not going to first of all write them up in regards to evaluation, you had to keep your finger on the pulse, you had to do what they were doing, so that they would, you could appreciate some of the stresses and strains. So I spent a lot of time there watching the actions back and fourth across the green line, I remember attending one briefing there and it had been a quiet night, there had only been a hundred people killed along the green line. Similarly in Southern Lebanon, we went through a number of transitions, remember the Israelis had moved forward twice, invaded the country, for the sake of a better term, in one case had pushed all the way through to Beirut and were now backing up, wanting to re-deploy back to the what they called the security zone, in the south, which they did, but there was a lot of fighting and they have their own method of operation, where we would call a lack of, call it a lack of fire control, they just don't take any chances, so if there's, with their personnel. And they sometimes shoot first, I know that the Irish battalion when I was working for Price Waterhouse in later years, and went back to visit that battalion, when we were doing the assessment of the Irish defence forces, at that time they had lost a hundred and twenty seven, Irish soldiers had been killed, either by the hostile actions of the Southern Lebanese Army or the Amole (sp?), the Hazbala (sp?), the PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) or the Israelis getting caught, that got caught in the fire fight. So there was, there was a lot of activity, I must admit I concentrated on that. Sure, I went through the Cyion(sp) patrol with a couple of the officers down there, but it's pretty quiet and it was pretty stable with that other force there, so you didn't spend too much time down there. And of course on the Israeli side of the cease-fire line down in Tiberias, was, you know, that's 200ft below sea level, it's pretty hot down there, but it's a beautiful little spot. You really didn't need to spend too much time there, because I was also serving with that mission on the Golan Heights and I knew it very well.

Description

Mr Ethell talks about his role in the Golan Heights with the United Nations as the Senior Canadian.

Donald Stewart Ethell

Donald Stewart Ethell was born in July 1937 and was raised in Victoria, BC. His father was a Veteran of both the First and Second World Wars. His mother was a nurse. He and his sister attended boarding school because of his parents' jobs and he was only home at Christmas and during the summer. His mother passed away when Mr. Ethell was 10 years old.

When he enlisted, Mr. Ethell joined the Queen's Own Rifles in Calgary. After several years of serving as an infantryman he was recommended for the officer training. Mr. Ethell graduated from the program and rose to the rank of Colonel. He went on to command Canadian, and United Nations, forces in various missions all over the world. In the mid 1990s, Col. Ethell retired with over thirty-five years of distinguished service.

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