This is a posting I meant to do in Aug. after we had a medal parade here in Juba for Chris Beamish, the RCMP from Edmonton that was in Khartoum when we arrived and helped us through the first few rough weeks. He reached his end of mission on the 28th of Aug. and since he hadn't recieved his UNMIS (Sudan mission) medal yet (being the only one here in Feb.) we held it for him. These pictures are from the ceremony itself. The first picture is the four of us present at the ceremony, Jas, Scott, Chris and myself, at ease (or parade rest as everyone else calls it). This was after a rather pathetic attempt by me to bring every one to attention, naturally enough by calling "Attention!" expecting to hear the crack of four left boots hitting the floor simultaneously. Try imagining what it was like instead to hear three boots shuffle into positon beside their right counterparts instead. Disappointing only begins to describe it. I must confess I couldn't maintain my composure, I turned and looked at them and said "What was that?". Oh to have had a drill instructor with me at that moment.
At any rate, we proceeded with the ceremony, I read a brief history of the UN Peacekeeping medal and a short bio of Chris, Deputy Commissioner Yemi (after four months I still can't spell or pronounce his last name) presented Chris with his medal and certificate, and we posed for a picture, the ever-present Australian Mark Goode along with us.
Congratulations Chris. A job well done.
2 comments:
Inquiring minds would like to know why your shirt is white while the others are grey? Does this indicate rank? Also, what does the bar and star on your shoulder area indicate?
Glad to see you updating your blog again - we were wondering where you were!
Love the worryworts in the Okanagan.
Hi Laurie. Yes, white shirts are comissioned officers, the grey shirts are the regular guys. The "bar" actually says "Canada" and the "star" is actually the Queen's Crown, indicating my rank is Inspector.
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