He's got mail

A letter in the Ottawa Citizen from a CF officer on one of our smaller missions:

Raising our troops' spirits

Canadians should know how touching it is to get mail from them, often simply addressed to "Any Canadian soldier."

I am deployed to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in Camp Faouar on the Syrian Golan Heights, monitoring the area of separation between Israel and Syria.

I am one of two remaining Canadian military officers in this small UN mission of 1,100 troops. Thousands of Canadian troops have served here since 1974. In 2006, Canada reduced our presence from about 200 to two to bolster the mission in Afghanistan. I was lucky to be selected and have served nine months of my 12-month assignment.

A posting to a small mission with troops from Austria, Poland, India, Croatia and Japan is a great opportunity and a bit of a curse. I have lots of colleagues who become great friends, but as one of only two Canadians in camp, away from home and family, it is sometimes a challenge to keep motivated, to stay positive and fight the inevitable homesickness.

The Canadian Forces encourages Canadians to write to the troops. I have received dozens of letters from all over Canada. Farmers, retirees, school children, army, air, and sea cadets and lots of families took the time to write everything from a short note on a postcard to a multi-page hand-written letter.

Someone even sent a care package with freeze-dried cake, tins of coffee and paper cups from a certain coffee chain.

All of this for soldiers whom they had never met nor were ever likely to meet. All good will. Simply amazing.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who made the effort to send mail. It makes me proud to be Canadian and makes me even more proud to serve in the Canadian Forces. For those who provided a return address I tried to answer each letter. You can't imagine the boost it is to receive a letter or two from someone new in the weekly mail pouch from Canada.

I love e-mail and can't live without it, but nothing beats a real letter or, for example, a crayon-coloured Canadian flag from Ashley, age six, or a home-made postcard with a picture of a grain elevator from Dalmeny, Saskatchewan.

Thanks Canada! You make it easy to be out here.

Maj. Greg Penner,

Camp Faouar, Syria

More:

Write to the Troops