Joseph Waitkus

My United Nations Tour was from July to December 1974 with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), I was one of the Infantry Soldiers from Third Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) sent as an augmentee to the Canadian Airborne Regiment for their tour in Cyprus. We were integrated into one of their Platoons.

My first impression of Cyprus was that the island was absolutely magnificent. As we drove from Nicosia Airport north of our HQ, I saw my first evidence of the ethnic tension that was tearing the island apart. Windows were sandbagged and, along some streets, manned defensive positions squared off against each other as close as 20 meters apart. From May to October, Cyprus baked in the Mediterranean sun under blue skies. There were thick forests covering much of the island’s centre. We Canadian Soldiers soon learned that the beauty of Cyprus had a recent past of murder and atrocities. We also learned that the island’s warring communities had a hair trigger, literally meters and seconds away from renewing their bloody vendetta.

We in the Patricia’s were responsible for the part of the Green Line (United Nations Buffer Zone) that divided Nicosia between North and South. Our duty on Cyprus could be described as sun, sand, and beer, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Most of the time we wore our UN Blue Ballcaps and Flack Jackets and patrolled the Green Line on foot, or we just sat tight in our Observation Posts for long hours in the hot sun. Some would dream of going water-skiing, boating, or just sun tanning and drinking on the nearby beaches. Any commotion along the Green Line was generally nothing more dangerous than one side or the other mounting a political demonstration over some incident, real or imagined. I found that Cyprus demonstrated both the strength and weakness of the traditional type of UN Blue Helmets Peacekeeping operations.

I mentioned Sheer Terror earlier. This terror occurred in July when Turkish Troops invaded the Northern part of the island. Canadian troops in Observation Posts along the Green Line were caught in the crossfire between and were forced to evacuate. By the time there was an end to the hostilities, and a Cease Fire put in place, there were two dead and 17 wounded Canadian Soldiers. The memories of the invasion and loss of Canadian lives have stayed with me all these years. I don’t think I will never forget what I witnessed, and I never want to forget the ones who were lost.