There were lots of hugs and handshakes at the Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport on Thursday night.
More than 80 soldiers from New Brunswick returned home from a six-month deployment to Latvia.
They were there as part of Operation Reassurance, a major ongoing mission in central and eastern Europe.
Col. Shawn McPherson is the deputy commander of the 6 Canadian Combat Support Brigade, which has provided vital support to the mission.
“We’re a one-of-one, meaning there’s only one brigade in Canada that has our capabilities,” McPherson said in an interview.
“We would provide air defense, drones, electronic warfare, and something that we call ISR — intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — and those capabilities are required to win in war.”
Deployment involved reservists, regular members
Around 50 of the soldiers who returned home are regular members and the rest are reservists.
McPherson said the reservists are part of what is known as the Force Protection Platoon.
“What they do is they provide protection to some of those assets that I was talking about,” he said.
“For instance, the multi-role radar. It’s a critical piece of infrastructure, but the technicians that run it aren’t capable of protecting it from the enemy, so the Force Protection Platoon would provide protection for that asset while it’s deployed on the battlefield.”
Capt. Ben LeBlanc with 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) was the Force Protection Platoon commander for this deployment.
LeBlanc, who is a firefighter and the emergency management coordinator in Hampton, said it was an amazing experience being in Latvia.
“The group that I was with has been together for the last year. It was comprised primarily of reservists, so it was awesome to see them be able to leave their civilian employment, come together back in June of 2024, commence their build-up training, and then deploy in December,” he said.
“A lot of them have been long-term reservists and have never had the opportunity to necessarily deploy, so I think it gave them an opportunity to put their training to use and show what they can do.”
Other units that had members returning included the Royal New Brunswick Regiment; 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (The Loyal Company), RCA; The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment; 4th Artillery Regiment (General Support), RCA; and 4 Engineer Support Regiment.
Impact on families
There was visible relief and happiness on the faces of many soldiers as they returned home for the first time in months.
McPherson said that while it is difficult for the soldiers to be away from home for so long, it is even harder for the families they are leaving behind.
“The Canadian Forces tries to do a good job of supporting the families, but most importantly, we want to thank those families for allowing those members to go overseas,” he said.
“It’s hard to do your job if you’re not feeling that your family is secure at home. A lot of Canadians really don’t consider the effect on the families when we send our members overseas.”
Operation Reassurance is the Canadian military’s largest overseas mission, contributing to NATO deterrence and defence measures in central and eastern Europe.
Around 1,900 Canadian Armed Forces members are deployed throughout the year in support of the mission — a number that is expected to reach 2,200 by next year.
