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Militaries, governments get serious about UFOs

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

On the night of July 30, 2021, a Canadian military transport out of Trenton, Ont., and a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight heading from Boston to Amsterdam both reported an unidentified flying object over the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

According to the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System, report No. 2021A0440, the two aircraft called in “a bright green flying object.”

“It flew into a cloud, then disappeared,” said the single-page document. “No impact to operations.

“CFC4003 was at F300 [30,000 feet] and thought it was flying; while KLM618 was at F400 and thought it was space debris. There was no indication of the direction of movement, speed or any identifying marks.”

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U.S National Archives

The Spanish flu ravaged Canada and its soldiers

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

In October 1918, about 1,000 Canadians a day were dying of the Spanish flu.

There is great debate about how the scourge arrived in Canada.

Did it come north with U.S. soldiers shipping out through Canada? The epidemic hit Camp Funston in Kansas in January. Since it was contagious before symptoms first appeared, it spread along rail lines from camp to camp, then to troopships bound for Europe.

Did it arrive with the 94,000 Chinese Labour Corps workers bound for the front lines in Europe, who crossed Canada in sealed cars in March 1918? Cases with similar symptoms—patients turning blue from lack of oxygen and coughing up blood—were recorded in northern China in 1917.

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Stephen J. Thorne

Photo essay: Warbirds and parachutists

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Flight is a beautiful thing, whether by bird’s wing or human hands.

They are different, to be sure.

The power and majesty of the mighty eagle, the agility and speed of the osprey, the silence and efficiency of the the great grey have been a central focus of my photography beyond work, a diversion from the rigours of daily life.

Aviation, on the other hand, has been a lifelong interest. My dad was air force during the Second World War, and so I was raised on stories of the Hurricane and Spitfire, the P-51 Mustang and the P-47 Thunderbolt, the Lancaster and the B-17.

I worked a year after high school flying with Vietnam-era helicopter pilots on oil exploration crews all across northwestern Alberta, northern British Columbia and the Arctic.

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The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle

A Bayonet is all PO2 James Leith needed to dismantle bombs in Afghanistan

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

On Sept. 28, 2006, using only his bayonet, Petty Officer 2nd class James Leith dismantled a bomb in Afghanistan.

“A good dose of fear keeps you sharp,” the navy explosives expert said in an interview with Darlene Blakely of Lookout, the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt newspaper, after the announcement that his actions had earned the Star of Courage.

On his first mission to Afghanistan, serving alongside 2 Combat Engineer Regiment, Leith was on his regular morning duty clearing supply routes west of Kandahar City, driving a Bison armoured vehicle packed with the tools of his trade­, including robots and X-ray equipment.

The Bison hit an improvised explosive device (IED) and was propelled more than nine metres through the air.

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