Calgary remembers the fallen at memorial event in Peacekeeper Park - Action News
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Calgary remembers the fallen at memorial event in Peacekeeper Park

Today the closest Sunday to Aug. 9 this year Calgarians honoured fallen peacekeepers at a memorial event atPeacekeeperPark in Garrison Green.

Veterans, family and friends gathered at Peacekeeper Park to pay their respects

A photo of Cpl. Cole Bartsch rests on the memorial at Peacekeepers' Day ceremonies on Sunday. He was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2007. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

It was Aug. 9, 1974. A United Nations-markedBuffalo aircraft with nine Canadian peacekeepers on board was flying a resupply mission from Beirut to Damascus.

While flying over Syria, a surface-to-air missile shot the plane out of the sky, killing all nine Canadians.

It was the single largest number of peacekeepers killed in one event.On the anniversary, Peacekeepers' Day, Canada remembers them and hundreds of other Canadian service men and women who servedpeacekeepingand peace support operations.

Rick Wright served as a Canadian peacekeeper in Egypt and Syprus in the 1970s. He served as master of ceremonies at Sunday's Peacekeepers' Day memorial. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

Today the closest Sunday to Aug. 9 this year Calgarians honoured fallen peacekeepers at a memorial event atPeacekeeperPark in Garrison Green.

"There's 328 names on this wall of peacekeepers who have lost their lives in peacekeeping and peace support operations since 1950," said former peacekeeper Rick Wright, referring to the memorial in Garrison Green.

Wright served as a peacekeeper in Egypt in 1974 andCyprus in 1979. He isalso Calgary chapter president of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was master of ceremonies at Sunday's event.

Tara Bartsch, middle left, stands in remembrance of her brother at Peacekeepers' Day ceremonies in Calgary Sunday. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

It was a day of healing for the families at the event, according to Wright. There are always at least a few families of fallen peacekeepers who come every year, depending on when the day falls.

ForTara Bartsch, whoseyounger brother Daniel was killed in 2007by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, the day is a way for her to remember her brother and have a day just for peacekeepers.

"I think it's important because there isn't a lot for the fallen," she said."There's Remembrance Day and there's Veteran's Day, but [today] is really for [peacekeepers] who haven't come back and those who are still here."

Names and poppies adorn the Calgary peacekeeper memorial wall in memory of Canada's 328 fallen in peacekeeping and peace support operations. (Mark-Antoine Leblanc/Radio-Canada)

For Wright, the day is about educating Canadians about their past and future ofpeacekeeping, something he says changed the country and those involved for the better.

But the world that created peacekeeping after the Korean War no longer exists, Wright said. In the last two decades, Wright says Canada has not done traditional peacekeeping missions, which may involve separating combatants. But peacekeeping evolves just as the world does, according to Wright.

"The change is continuous and you have to adapt to that," he said.

"The Canadian population has to understand that there is a continuous change."

Peacekeepers day next year will take place on Aug. 17, 2023.