HMCS Iroquois departs for Op Altair
Virginia Beaton
Trident Newspaper
April 28, 2008
With hundreds of spectators watching, HMCS Iroquois left Halifax April 19 for a six-month maritime security operation.
Iroquois is the flagship for Cmdre Bob Davidson, who will head up the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150), a multinational coalition covering the maritime front of the US-lead campaign against terrorism.
The ship will meet HMC Ships Calgary and Protecteur in the Caribbean and then together transit to the Arabian Sea where Cmdre Davidson will assume command of CTF 150.Gen Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, and VAdm Drew Robertson, Chief of the Maritime Staff, spoke to the ship’s company and their families and friends who were on the jetty for the departure.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be here to bid farewell to the ship,” VAdm Robertson stated. “The only problem with this morning is I’m standing here in a dress uniform and the members of the ship’s company are in naval combat dress. I wish it was the other way around, I’d like to be headed off as well.”
In addressing the purpose of the deployment, VAdm Robertson emphasized there were three reasons for the deployment. “We deploy because there’s important work to be done abroad, because it needs to be done on a nearly constant basis and because this navy is very good at doing it.”
The CF members on this deployment will do vital work, he added.
“The oceans are the world’s superhighways, as you all know, and the trade that is carried on those highways is crucially important to Canada. This country needs maritime security in some dangerous parts of the world to make sure the seas are kept safe for lawful use, and denied to those who would use the seas unlawfully.”
Canada’s presence abroad matters, says VAdm Robertson. “It’s too late, when a crisis emerges on the world stage, to be thinking about building the relationships and trust that might have prevented a crisis from erupting in the first place. So, navies deploy as much to prevent conflict as they do to be ready to end it.”
In his remarks, Gen Hillier acknowledged the contributions of the military families watching their loved ones deploy.
“I don’t think there’s a greater group of Canadians than the families who are here to support the sailors and airmen and airwomen who are embarking and deploying here today.”
