Ron Myers (Primary Source)

"Our commitment was to do observations along the ADL, which spread from the Mediterranean down to the Gulf of Aqaba - the tip of the Sinai Peninsula -re-supplying Army and UN outposts along the ADL by air."

See below for Mr. Myers' entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

Lord Trenchard, Air Marshall of the Commonwealth and founder of the RAF, on his retirement tour in 1952. Myers is pictured here, third airman from the right with the RCAF Honour Guard, Tactical Air Command, Edmonton, Alberta.

Ron Myers' RCAF dog tags, worn during his term of service from 1951-1968.

The UN peacekeeping display at the Mossbank museum. Photo courtesy of Ron Myers.

Myers' was presented the Peacekeeping Medal in 2002 by Dr. Lynda Haverstock, Lt. Governor of Saskatchewan. On the left is Myers' wife, Mary.

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Our commitment was to do observations along the ADL, which spread from the Mediterranean down to the Gulf of Aqaba - the tip of the Sinai Peninsula -re-supplying Army and UN outposts along the ADL by air.

Transcript

My name is Ron Myers. I enlisted in the RCAF in 1951, and served until 1976 in the regular force, and I did five years with the Air Reserve after retirement.

During my service time, I served on four overseas postings, the first being with 4 Fighter Wing in Germany from 1955 to '57. My first United Nations posting was with the United Nations Emergency Force, Middle-East, with 115 Air Transport Unit in the Sinai Desert, near the village of Al Arish, Egypt. That was from 1961 to 1962, approximately a fourteen-month period. During that period, we flew DeHavilland aircraft, which was the standard otter at the time, plus the twin-engine Caribou. Our commitment was to do observations along the ADL, which spread from the Mediterranean down to the Gulf of Aqaba - the tip of the Sinai Peninsula -re-supplying Army and UN outposts along the ADL by air.

I returned to the Middle East again in 1975 - 1975-1976 - with the United Nations at a city called Ismailia. That was after - the period after the Yom Kippur War. During my service with the United Nations, especially with 115 Air Transport Unit, we had close contact with all the local residents and Bedouins, and it became clear that they were lacking medical care as far as the young children were concerned. Our flight surgeon committed three hours twice a week of his time to set up a medical clinic for the children, which we all supported and the accommodations were very sub-standard, so all of the airmen on their off-duty hours put in their time to build a building for him to have his little medical clinic in. This is just one of the few things that we did to help the local population, and especially the young children.