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First female defence chief faces daunting challenges

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Major-General Jennie Carignan, NATO Mission Iraq commander, and British Major-General Gerald Strickland, a deputy commander with Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, consult with quick reaction force troops at Camp Taji, Iraq, on Feb. 7, 2020. (SPC. CAROLINE SCHOFER/U.S. ARMY)

First female defence chief faces daunting challenges

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan, a 35-year military veteran who headed the forces’ topical professional conduct and culture directorate, has been named the first woman to serve as Canada’s chief of the defence staff.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement July 3, congratulating Carignan and saying “her exceptional leadership qualities, commitment to excellence, and dedication to service have been a tremendous asset” to the forces.

“I am confident that, as Canada’s new Chief of the Defence Staff, she will help Canada be stronger, more secure, and ready to tackle global security challenges.”

CANADA AND THE SCHELDT CAMPAIGN: The necessary victory

Blast cloud from Bedford Magazine Explosion.(WIKIMEDIA)

The second Halifax explosion

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The date wasn’t Dec. 6, 1917, but rather July 18, 1945.

The location broadly remained the same, although the circumstances were markedly different. Nevertheless, a degree of hubris could be attributed to both.

Back on that cold and unforgiving winter day, with the First World War having reached a fiery crescendo overseas, two vessels collided in Halifax Harbour. One, a heavily laden munitions ship, became the epicentre for the largest humanmade explosion before the atomic bomb detonations in Japan.

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Leaders condemn latest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared this image of a young hospital patient wounded in Monday’s Russian missile attack.(ZELENSKYY/X)

Leaders condemn latest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Moscow came under renewed condemnation this week after a series of Russian missile strikes killed at least 39 people in Ukraine, including a pediatrician and another adult at the country’s largest children’s hospital.

About 20 children were being treated in the ward hit Monday at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. Pictures showed young children, some with IV drips, sitting outside as the hospital was evacuated.

“One part of the hospital was destroyed and there was a fire in another,” said Dr. Lesia Lysytsia. “It’s really very damaged—maybe 60-70 per cent of the hospital.”

Major David Currie.(WIKIMEDIA)

Remembering David Currie, V.C.

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Major David Currie remembered it being around 5 o’clock on a Wednesday when he first heard the news of having earned the Victoria Cross.

“I was staggered,” recalled The South Alberta Regiment tanker in a CBC radio interview recorded in the Netherlands. “I sat down, had a cigarette, and thought it over.”

Currie, born July 8, 1912, was 32-years-old when he displayed actions worthy of the military’s highest honour. Although a native of Sunderland, Sask., he grew up in Moose Jaw where his family lived between 1913 and 1939. It was there that he went to school, eventually pursuing a career as a vehicle mechanic and welder.