We are but a group of veterans trying to honour the service and sacrifices of our comrades-in-arms and leave a legacy of Canada’s longest UN peacekeeping mission and a forgotten 1974 war for Canadians,” wrote retired colonel James Holsworth and retired major-general Walter Holmes in a November 2024 statement at the outset of a government-sponsored commemorative trip to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.

Known as Operation Snowgoose, the mission began in 1964. In July 1974, the peacekeepers found themselves in the middle of a war zone between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Outnumbered and under attack from both sides, the UN force held key positions and defended the airport until a ceasefire was negotiated. Canada contributed a contingent of peacekeepers there until 1993, during which about 28,000 Canadians served; 28 died. It’s one of the country’s longest and best-known overseas military commitments.

To mark the milestone anniversary, a group of Canadian veterans of the mission—most in their 60s, 70s and 80s—and their families returned to the island Nov. 4-12 for tribute events. The delegation included representatives from the federal government, as well as Indigenous and veterans’ organizations. They visited key sites linked to the mission and the trip culminated with a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Canadian UN Peacekeeper Memorial in Wolseley Barracks, UN Sector 2 HQ.

George Slade, 91, was the oldest veteran in attendance. He served with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals when he was in Cyprus in 1966.

“When I was saluting, I was thinking of my father and all the others who served in the military in the past,” Slade told Eric Reguly of The Globe and Mail. “I thought of all their lives, and all those who died to make our country a safe democracy.”