Brian Wensley
Special to the Times-Chronicle
(The following is a recent presentation to Oliver students leading up to Remembrance Day.)
For Remembrance Day I am honoured, as a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, to give a brief outline of my experience and how it melds with the reason we recognize this day.
Although I served in the Air Force from 1965 to 1970 as a Leading Air Craftsman, my service pales in comparison to the men and women who served during the conflicts of the First and Second World Wars, Korea, etc., just to name a few as there were numerous others. Many thousands died in battle.
Another war that is rarely mentioned raged from 1946, just after the Second World War, to 1991 and was known as the Cold War. This was a lengthy period when although the nations were not officially at war, there was total distrust between the USSR and the United States and its Allies. The USSR stands for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic comprised of 15 countries and led by Russia. This has since fallen apart by way of many countries opting out of the union, so it is now just referred to as Russia.
Walls were built, land acquisitions took place that defied global approval, and don’t forget the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis with the resulting blockade of Cuba by the United States.
The Cold War was 45 years of tension, the start of the nuclear arms race, the quest to be the leading nation for outer space exploration . . . basically, a desire to achieve world dominance.
My time in the military was spent as an electronics technician maintaining long range radar systems which could identify an aircraft, its origin, its direction, height in the sky and how fast it was going.
Canada had three lines of radar sites that stretched from one end of the country to the other with the radar sites being approximately 100 miles apart. The most southerly was the Pine Tree Line, and just north of that was the Mid Canada Line, and then right along the shoreline of the Arctic Ocean was the Distant Early Warning Line, commonly referred to as the DEWline. I worked on all three lines.
The purpose of all these radar installations was to identify any threat from Russia should they enter our air space with aircraft or missiles carrying warheads.
Should any of those be identified the radar operator would contact NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) who would immediately scramble fighter jets or launch land to air missiles to intercept the intrusion. I don’t believe such an occurrence ever took place at the cost of countless billions of dollars. However, they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I was and still am proud to have been able to serve my country.
(Photo contributed)
(Photo contributed)
Looks like the moon.
(Photo contributed)
