Last of HMCS Terra Nova sailors receive medals

MS (Retired) John Wood shakes hands with Capt(N) Julian Elbourne after receiving a Special Service Medal and Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal from Lieutenant Governor of B.C. Janet Austin. Photo by Stephanie Raymond

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~

Forty-seven years after HMCS Terra Nova completed an international peacekeeping mission in Vietnam, 25 members of the crew were officially honoured with medals.

On Family Day, Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin presided over a ceremony at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, where the Special Service Medal with Peace Clasp and Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal were presented to crew members who had not received their medals. Four were awarded posthumously.

In the red carpeted chamber, with its ornate ceiling and curved rows of wooden seats, approximately 130 of the crew’s family members gathered for the occasion. 

Captain (Navy) Julian Elbourne, Chief of Staff for Commander of Maritime Forces Pacific, provided official representation at the ceremony for the Royal Canadian Navy.

CPO2 (Retired) Ken Levert was among those who received his medal years ago. That moment, says Levert, came with little fanfare as he had to officially request his medal, which was subsequently mailed to him in plain brown paper envelope back in the early 1990s. They weren’t intentionally being ignored, says Levert. Medals for Canadian peacekeeping missions prior to the Vietnam War were sometimes not issued. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that things changed.

So last week’s ceremony was a great way to make up for lost time.  Everyone was “treated like royalty,” he said.

This ceremony also acknowledged the families, who remained behind, worked, paid the bills, and looked after children without their spouses.

“It was a very rewarding day for all of us, even for those of us who have already received our deployment medal. Some of our crew got their medals for the first time because they had retired, moved, or were not aware they had to submit a request for their medal.”

Terra Nova was conducting training near Vancouver Island when it was ordered to return to CFB Esquimalt to prepare for a mission. The ship rushed in on a Friday, stored, fuelled, and ammunitioned over the weekend, and left Monday morning. The crew were given no details of the deployment until they reached Hawaii. Their mission, dubbed WestPloy 1/73, was to help oversee the end of the Vietnam War and provide contingent emergency evacuation for Canadians as part of an international agreement called the International Commission of Control and Supervision.

HMCS Terra Nova lived up to it motto, “Do not falter,” said Levert.