Positive Reflection on Tour

Heroes Remember

Positive Reflection on Tour

Transcript

We spent a lot of time away from the family and when you got young children you miss them, and the communications then was not like it is now. I mean people now when they're in Afghanistan or Bosnia or wherever they are, are almost daily communicating back home with the family because of the communications that's available now, but that wasn't available back then, so we relied still on the old snail mail, on letters going back and forth. We had an aircraft coming in every week so it was fairly fast delivery back again, you know. But I don't really see any bad aspects about being there or, it was just a good interesting year that provided a lot of insight into other people's way of life. It was a, it was good, I would do it all over again, in fact I would do the whole 30 years over again but that's beside the point. It's hard because as I said, we intermingled so much there we became part of the culture that was going on. Yeah look, different methods of transportation, different way of living, different foods that they eat compared to us but the way of life, they were, many Christian beliefs the same as we had, many tribal beliefs that you had to mix in with it and there was a, I guess would be the biggest thing I encountered was the difference in tribal beliefs and how one did not mix with the other. You would see the people getting promoted in the Tanzanian's Peoples Defence Force that came from a certain tribe more so than the people that deserve the promotion because they came from another element of life there so that was one big difference that I seen, what didn't seem to be a totally fair society that all are equal. It's where you came from had more bearing on what happened to you than who you were. And I'd say that's about the biggest thing I seen different. The way of life we just got accustomed to. I mean you go out on an evening down to what they call the Sinbad, it was a bar between the airport and where we lived and it was open air bar, just thatched roofs over tables and stuff but there was a band playing every night and a lot of modern music. They learned the modern music but all sang in Swahili or some native tongue and you'd sit and have a few ales and enjoy the evening and then go back to your quarters and get up the next morning and go back to work, you know. It wasn't really a hardship other than being away from the family, you know that was the biggest, biggest part.

Description

Mr. Kish describes his tour in a positive light recognizing the greatest hardship was being away from his family.

Erl Kish

Mr. Erl Kish was born January 3, 1935 in Inverary, Ontario. Coming from a military family, with a grandfather in WWI and an uncle in WWII, Mr. Kish always felt the desire to join the military and made the decision to join the army first with the Royal Canadian Service Corp. In 1963, he took on the trade of mechanic and amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers. After several tours and 30 years service, Mr. Kish held the rank of Sergeant until his retirement as Chief Warrant Officer. Returning to civilian life, Mr. Kish remained a mechanic until retirement. Mr. Kish joined the Legion and remains a proud member.

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