A Pioneer Veteran
Posted by Vince Campbell on Nov 11, 2016
Our speaker for Tuesday was very appropriate considering it is the time of year for remembrance of the men and women in the armed forces. Past president of The Strathcona Legion, Barry Remanda, was born in Nipiwan, SK and raised in Creston, BC. He joined the military in 1974 and has made it a life time career which gave him a lot of experiences to talk about. He was a member of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry.
Barry was able to train to become a Pioneer which is a small team that goes ahead to make sure the path is clear for the rest of the troops. Removing land mines, setting up bridges or blowing up bridges was all left to the Pioneers. Basically they were trained to do any job that came along. He was pleased that the Pioneers were allowed to grow beards as they could be away from the regular troops for several days. If only he could because he was quite young at the time! It seemed that Barry liked to blow things up as he talked a lot doing this while in training at Wainwright.
Barry served in Cypress in 1975 and 1976 during the conflict there. This was Barry’s first talk about his experiences which was much appreciated. There were a lot of questions for him which he was very happy to answer.
By the way the, Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry or PPCLI also stands for (please protect Canada’s little idiots) as he told me after the meeting. Thank you Barry
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