The Van Doo Cyprus shuffle, 54 years on
Members of the Canadian contingent serving with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), are seen at an observation post in Trakhomas. 27 March 1964.
UN Photo Archives # 86335
Note the unit patch of the famous Royal 22e Régiment (The Van Doos), as well as the Canadian-made, inch-pattern semi-auto FN FAL dubbed the C1A1 (C1) in Canuck service and a U.S.-supplied M1919 light machine gun. Interestingly enough, the Canadians were the first large military to adopt the FAL, in 1954, to replace the Enfield .303, and only phased it out in the late 1980s with the Diemaco (Colt Canada) C7 (M16A2).
According to the UN: “Canada has a long tradition of supporting peacekeeping missions starting with its contribution in the United Nations Military Observer group in Indian and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) in 1949 and currently have contributes 113 military and police personnel to our peacekeeping missions in Haiti (MINUSTAH) Darfur (UNAMID) Cyprus (UNFICYP) South Sudan (United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Middle East (UN Truce Supervision Organisation).”
And it looks like the Canucks are headed to increasingly unstable Mali.