Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 07/01) - Serving your country has its rewards -- literally.
More than 50 Canadian Forces members and their families gathered Friday at the Department of National Defence Northern Area Headquarters in Yellowknife for a medal ceremony.
In all, 23 Canadian Decoration medals and Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medals were handed out to Northern members of the armed forces.
"Wear these medals with pride and know that you've made a difference," the Commanding Officer of Northern Area headquarters, Lt.-Col. Rory Kilburn, told the members as he called each up to pin the medals on their uniforms. The Canadian decoration medal is for loyal and dedicated service and is awarded after 12 years in the armed forces and every 10 years after that.
During the Friday morning ceremony, Major Bob Knight was given his second bar to the medal in recognition of 32 years of service.
Having served in Yellowknife for the last four years, Knight is now in his 34 year of service.
"As Col. Leblanc used to say, "you join the military to see the world, they just don't tell you that most of it will be on foot,"" said Knight, who has served overseas in eight peace keeping missions.
Being away from home so much, he said, makes maintaining "normal" family life difficult when one partner is away for extended periods of time.
The peacekeeping medals, a new honour recently struck by order of the Governor General of Canada, is given to those who have served on international peacekeeping or observer missions. Kilburn, who also received a peacekeeping medal, told the members that the medals were for not only for their service, but for their family's service.
Many armed forces personnel are away for months at a time for work and training purposes, leaving children and spouses alone on the home front.
