Restoring Communication in the Country

Heroes Remember

Restoring Communication in the Country

Transcript

The main reason why the Sigs regiment were there, we were there to get communication running again in the country because they had, they cut everything. All the power lines were cut, there was no phone between, you know, cities. No communication. So the six months we were there, the Sig regiment, we established the communication, that was our main goal there. When I got there, General Dallaire was there. General Dallaire is a man that I truly admire, is a great, great man. And he was happy to see us there, at least Canadian. He had other nations with him over there but they were not Canadian. He wanted to be with Canadian so we worked with General Dallaire a lot. I tried to help him in his administration and stuff, so my daily work was every morning, I used to go down to the UNAMIR headquarter where he was about, oh maybe, it was maybe a mile from our place and see if he needed anything done and bring the things back to our place.

Description

Mr. Desmeules explains the main purpose for their presence and his close work with General Romeo Dallaire.

Mike Desmeules

Mr. Desmeules was born in 1950 in Jean Pierre, Quebec. With little work in his hometown community, Mr. Desmeules decided to join the armed forces, considering it as an opportunity to travel. At 18 years of age Mr. Desmeules initially joined the Navy taking up the service occupation of administrative clerk. With this occupation being very generic to all branches of service, Mr. Desmeules later joined with the army and in 1975 accepted an opportunity to travel to Egypt with the Signal Regiment. In 1995, Mr. Desmeules accepted a posting to Rwanda, again in the administrative field of occupation. Upon return to Canada, Mr. Desmeules made the switch back to navy service and retired when 30 years of service was achieved. Mr. Desmeules and his family took up residence in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

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