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CDS honours VDQ at sea
By Lt(N) Chris Gabriel and Lt(N) Francis Turcotte
Chief of the Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk (right front) presents Commander Chris Dickinson, commanding officer of HMCS Ville de Québec, with the flag symbolizing the Canadian Forces Unit Commendation.
Responding to an urgent request from the United Nations World Food Programme, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship VILLE DE QUÉBEC deployed to the Somali coast from August to October 2008. Tasked with providing anti-piracy support to merchant vessels, the crew worked tirelessly to ensure the safe delivery of much needed food through pirate-laden waters. With remarkable motivation, amazing flexibility and dedicated effort, they overcame the challenge of simultaneously providing merchant vessels with onboard security and naval escort. The individual dedication of each crew member to this humanitarian mission brought hope to a quarter of a million people and highlighted Canadian leadership on the world stage.
On 21 November 2008, a visit by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Walter Natynczyk, to HMCS Ville de Québec at sea off the south coast of France culminated in the presentation of a Canadian Forces Unit Commendation for excellent performance of duty. Flown aboard on 20 November by the ship’s CH-124 Sea King helicopter, the CDS made a grand entrance on the flight deck, wearing naval uniform.
Ville de Québec is currently deployed on Operation SEXTANT with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in the Mediterranean Sea. The award of the CF Unit Commendation arises from an emergency tasking, from 10 August to 29 October 2008, when the Halifax-based frigate was diverted from Op SEXTANT to the pirate-infested waters off east Africa. She was then attached to the Canadian flotilla deployed on Operation ALTAIR (Canada’s naval participation in the campaign against support to terrorism), and assigned to escort freighters transporting humanitarian aid supplies for the World Food Programme from Mombasa, Kenya to Mogadishu, Somalia.
During his two-day visit to the ship, Gen Natynczyk toured the flats (hallways) to visit crew members at their duty stations, congratulate them individually for their excellent work on the humanitarian mission, and present CDS Coins to those who performed with particular distinction.
The visit’s main event was an all-ranks gathering held in the ship’s hangar in a Town Hall format that combined an address from the CDS with questions and comments from the crew. It was in this forum that Gen Natynczyk sprang his big surprise: the presentation to Commander Chris Dickinson, the ship’s commanding officer, of the gold-embossed scroll of the CF Unit Commendation along with the symbols of the honour, a special commemorative flag and a gold medallion.
“You overcame the operational difficulties associated with simultaneously providing World Food Programme vessels with on-board security and naval escort,” said Gen Natynczyk. Emphasizing that the award is for every member of the ship’s company, he went on, “Thanks to your dedication and flexibility, food was able to travel through those pirate-infested waters, bringing new hope to hundreds of thousands of people and shining a very favourable light on Canada and the Canadian Forces.”
HMCS Ville de Québec is now in the last phase of her deployment. She is scheduled to return to Halifax, her home port, just in time for Christmas.
Lt(N) Chris Gabriel is the Above Water Warfare Officer in HMCS Ville de Québec. Lt(N) Francis Turcotte is the ship’s Supply Officer and Unit Public Affairs Representative.
