November/December 2009 Issue

MINDS AT WAR: The Toll and Treatment of Operational Stress Injuries
Sergeant Shawn Clarke knows how far the Canadian Forces has come in handling operational stress injuries. If he’d met himself 10 years ago, as he is today—a veteran of the Afghanistan war with post-traumatic stress disorder—he’d have said, “‘Suck it up you wimp!’ That’s what I would have said to a guy like me.” Clarke is among a growing number of CF members recovering from operational stress injuries, and he is not afraid to challenge those who are insensitive or disrespectful of those with an OSI. The good news is progress is being made in treating such injuries, although there is a long way to go. In its November/December issue, Legion Magazine health reporter Sharon Adams takes us inside the painful and often misunderstood realm of OSIs.

LOW • FAST • DARK: Canada’s Special Ops Aviators
Legion Magazine military affairs writer Adam Day introduces readers to the secret world of the Canadian Forces 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron, a group of specially trained and chosen fliers tasked with carrying members of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command into dangerous situations. “Mobility, reconnaissance and firepower…we move things, find things, and shoot things,” notes the squadron’s commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Whale, in describing the unit’s three main goals.

DEAR MOTHER, FROM “SOMEWHERE” IN FRANCE
When Private Percival Green wrote home to his mother in 1916 it was to tell her he was doing fine, but had been wounded during a training accident when a bomb exploded unexpectedly. “It happened yesterday,” he wrote. “I underwent an operation last night…and it was necessary to amputate four toes and part of my foot…There were 12 of us in the class and we fired 24 bombs between us and had several duds among them. We got orders to gather them up and…one went off…. I came out the lucky one. Several fellows lost their legs.”  Private Green’s correspondence is included in a special section titled War Letters in the November/December issue of Legion Magazine.

ALSO INSIDE LEGION MAGAZINE

• Free Postcards To Send To The Troops In Afghanistan
• A Retrospective On Mohawk and Newfoundland Ironworkers Who Helped Build New York City