Virginia NATO Association 

100 Word (and pictures) Stories of Us

March 1984, Lt Cdr, North Norwegian Sea assigned to Canadian destroyer ALGONQUIN. Winched down from helicopter (windy, big waves, bloody cold), met by XO, given stiff drink. Good start. Dinner with CO includes wine. Slept well thinking Canadians nice. Next morning called to bridge 0730. Ship scheduled to RAS (UNREP) at 0900, CO invites me to drive… Moi?? Been on board just 12 hours?? RN officers don’t panic….but OMG! So, politely refuse..? Can’t, honour of RN at stake! Quick briefing from XO then it’s time. Panic over, start enjoying. Two hours later freezing cold but rated by supply ship “Good RAS, 98%”. Visit XO for stiffer drink.

Apparently, Merv passed the test.

Tear Down this Wall, Mister +++ Merv Wighting

May 1987, Cdr, assigned to SHAPE in Belgium. Encouraged to visit occupied Berlin. British military train ran every day from Helmstedt. Departed 4pm, best uniform. Russians everywhere at border. Laborious passport check page by page. Train gets moving....immaculate waiter brings adult beverages. Arrive Berlin hotel. Next day through wall at Checkpoint Charlie. Graffiti on wall’s western side, clean concrete other side (minefields, dogs and 50 cals deter artists). Soviet soldiers glare; we smile back at them. Smart BMWs one side, crazy little Trabants on other. Reality of occupation sobering. Catch train back to civilization. Postscript: small souvenir of wall sits on my bookcase shelf. /

A souvenir

Languages +++ Wayne Buck

1992-1993, Major, deployed to the Sahara Desert as part of a UN mission. I was assigned as the leader of a teamsite on the Polisario side. We were a team of about 20 who lived in tents and patrolled the area looking for either side not adhering to the agreed cease-fire. In the team were several nationalities including Columbians, Polish, Canadian, Brazilian, British, and Argentinian. This was a dual language mission with English and French as the working languages. The funny thing is when Argentina volunteered to be part of the mission, they chose to teach their Spanish speaking officers French. That was fine except everyone else only spoke their native language and English. No one but me had a clue what he was saying. So I became an impromtu language teacher for a few months. He was a good guy and worked hard and now is trilingual.

Coffins +++ Wayne Buck

You will recall that in the early and late 1980s the Congo, Rwanda, and their neighbours were having all kinds of strife. This resulted in a significant number of displaced persons (DP) (400,000) wandering around the area looking for a new home. This was brought before the UN and they decided to try and find the DP and guide them towards a new home. The UN initiated a mission with Canada as the lead nation. I was the Signal Officer for the mission. We staged in Stuttgart at the US base there and then headed to theatre. The main HQ was set up in Entebbe, Uganda at the airport. This was a good site and the US was very willing to help us with technology and knowledge.

Travelling in Unganda, the Congo, Rwanda and so was very interesting. The area is rich in natural resources and I swear that if you drop a seed on the ground, the next day it will be a full grown plant with fruit. Another interesting aspect is that most labour is done outside as the days are mostly fine. Note the below photo that shows a coffin maker doing his craft in the open air.

 Outdoor coffin making shop.