- Reaction score
- 6,430
- Points
- 1,360
This seemed more like military history than news, so voila,
http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=23132cd4-139e-4841-85b4-24efda855eaf
Ranger retires after 52 years
Canadian Press
CLYDE RIVER, Nunavut (CP) - They say old soldiers just fade away, but Peter Kuniliusie is taking his time about it.
Kuniliusie, 74, the last of the original Rangers, retired Wednesday before a scarlet-clad honour guard of fellow soldiers after guarding his country's most remote and difficult frontier for an amazing 52 years. And he's not done yet.
"I will retire on Nov. 3, 2004, but I will continue to speak to the local Rangers when asked about certain things," the Inuktitut-speaking Kuniliusie told an interpreter. "I will continue to support them."
The Rangers were formed shortly after the Second World War, when the Canadian government decided it needed a stronger presence in the North to counter the perceived Soviet threat.
Kuniliusie joined almost immediately.
"There's still a debate when he actually started," said Col. Norman Couturier, commander of the Canadian Forces Northern Area, who travelled to Clyde River on the east coast of Baffin Island for Kuniliusie's retirement.
"He was recruited in the summer of 1949 when a ship showed up conducting TB testing. Peter and six other hunters were given .303 rifles and were told that they were now Rangers."
The enrolment forms weren't filled in for another three years.
Ever since, Kuniliusie has patrolled the Arctic, going from dogsled to snow machine. He earned a reputation as an expert weather forecaster - although he now says weather patterns have changed so much in the Arctic his hard-won knowledge is less reliable.
"He's a very quiet, laid-back, easy-going humble type of guy," said Couturier.
"He's an excellent teacher of the native skills."
The Rangers serve as the eyes and ears of the regular army. They also provide invaluable experience with local terrain, safe travel routes, search and rescue and weather patterns.
Speaking through interpreter Levi Palituq, Kuniliusie later recalled how he and the other Rangers would teach military men from the south the life skills they needed to survive on the rugged landscape.
"One year, a certain soldier that came up built an igloo on his own with the help of the Rangers," said Kuniliusie. "He built that igloo and stayed in that igloo, sleeping in it and living in it for a couple of days, and that tells me the Rangers taught him well."
But the job was not always easy.
"I was teaching how to search for a person after an avalanche. Incidentally, an avalanche happened and a local person got buried, and we had to look for his body. That was the most difficult time I ever had to go through."
Kuniliusie lives with his grandchildren and, while Couturier says his health has been more fragile lately, he continued to perform his duties until quite recently.
Such Rangers are a vital link to the vast storehouse of Inuit traditional knowledge, says Capt. Conrad Schubert, who works with Rangers across the North.
"Peter Kuniliusie is a repository of those skills, a living database who will continue to be a resource for his patrol."
Canadian Forces internal reports have warned the entire Rangers program is threatened by the continued erosion of such skills as southern lifestyles creep into the North.
But Kuniliusie said Rangers still have a vital role to play teaching how to get around in blizzards or how to travel in the cold.
"It's almost the same as what I experienced when I first started being a Ranger," he said.
In fact, the Ranger program, through elders such as Kuniliusie, has become one of the main avenues through which such skills are passed down to young Inuit.
At Wednesday's ceremony, Kuniliusie was given a Canadian Flag mounted in an inscribed glass box.
He will also receive a certificate of service signed by the chief of the defence staff, Gen. Ray Henault.
Prime Minister Paul Martin has also written a letter of congratulations.
Kuniliusie said all the fuss that's being made over him makes him feel proud, but at the same time humble that so many consider him a role model.
"My goal has been accomplished," he said. "My vision, my dream of what of a model Ranger should be has been achieved."
http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=23132cd4-139e-4841-85b4-24efda855eaf
Ranger retires after 52 years
Canadian Press
CLYDE RIVER, Nunavut (CP) - They say old soldiers just fade away, but Peter Kuniliusie is taking his time about it.
Kuniliusie, 74, the last of the original Rangers, retired Wednesday before a scarlet-clad honour guard of fellow soldiers after guarding his country's most remote and difficult frontier for an amazing 52 years. And he's not done yet.
"I will retire on Nov. 3, 2004, but I will continue to speak to the local Rangers when asked about certain things," the Inuktitut-speaking Kuniliusie told an interpreter. "I will continue to support them."
The Rangers were formed shortly after the Second World War, when the Canadian government decided it needed a stronger presence in the North to counter the perceived Soviet threat.
Kuniliusie joined almost immediately.
"There's still a debate when he actually started," said Col. Norman Couturier, commander of the Canadian Forces Northern Area, who travelled to Clyde River on the east coast of Baffin Island for Kuniliusie's retirement.
"He was recruited in the summer of 1949 when a ship showed up conducting TB testing. Peter and six other hunters were given .303 rifles and were told that they were now Rangers."
The enrolment forms weren't filled in for another three years.
Ever since, Kuniliusie has patrolled the Arctic, going from dogsled to snow machine. He earned a reputation as an expert weather forecaster - although he now says weather patterns have changed so much in the Arctic his hard-won knowledge is less reliable.
"He's a very quiet, laid-back, easy-going humble type of guy," said Couturier.
"He's an excellent teacher of the native skills."
The Rangers serve as the eyes and ears of the regular army. They also provide invaluable experience with local terrain, safe travel routes, search and rescue and weather patterns.
Speaking through interpreter Levi Palituq, Kuniliusie later recalled how he and the other Rangers would teach military men from the south the life skills they needed to survive on the rugged landscape.
"One year, a certain soldier that came up built an igloo on his own with the help of the Rangers," said Kuniliusie. "He built that igloo and stayed in that igloo, sleeping in it and living in it for a couple of days, and that tells me the Rangers taught him well."
But the job was not always easy.
"I was teaching how to search for a person after an avalanche. Incidentally, an avalanche happened and a local person got buried, and we had to look for his body. That was the most difficult time I ever had to go through."
Kuniliusie lives with his grandchildren and, while Couturier says his health has been more fragile lately, he continued to perform his duties until quite recently.
Such Rangers are a vital link to the vast storehouse of Inuit traditional knowledge, says Capt. Conrad Schubert, who works with Rangers across the North.
"Peter Kuniliusie is a repository of those skills, a living database who will continue to be a resource for his patrol."
Canadian Forces internal reports have warned the entire Rangers program is threatened by the continued erosion of such skills as southern lifestyles creep into the North.
But Kuniliusie said Rangers still have a vital role to play teaching how to get around in blizzards or how to travel in the cold.
"It's almost the same as what I experienced when I first started being a Ranger," he said.
In fact, the Ranger program, through elders such as Kuniliusie, has become one of the main avenues through which such skills are passed down to young Inuit.
At Wednesday's ceremony, Kuniliusie was given a Canadian Flag mounted in an inscribed glass box.
He will also receive a certificate of service signed by the chief of the defence staff, Gen. Ray Henault.
Prime Minister Paul Martin has also written a letter of congratulations.
Kuniliusie said all the fuss that's being made over him makes him feel proud, but at the same time humble that so many consider him a role model.
"My goal has been accomplished," he said. "My vision, my dream of what of a model Ranger should be has been achieved."
