The war in Ukraine gave army reserve officer Eamon McArthur his chance to make a difference in the fight to maintain a democracy.
Deployed this past summer from Prince George to southern England as part of Canadian Armed Forces Operation UNIFIER, McArthur was there to train Ukrainian military and security personnel in battlefield tactics and advanced military skills.
They came from all walks of life - computer programmers, teachers, social media influencers, even opera singers – all called into service to defend their country from the Russian invasion.
Representing the Rocky Mountain Rangers Bravo Company, he was the only soldier from north central B.C. for a five-month deployment that took him overseas from February to July.
“It started off as volunteers and then it went into conscripts as well. It was essentially a training program to bring people from civilian to soldier in a short period of time,” said McArthur.
A part-time reservist for the Rangers, McArthur took a leave of absence from his job as a B.C. conservation officer after he got approval to accept the assignment from his wife Muireena and their two teenaged daughters.
“They knew it was something I had to do, I wasn’t just going to do an army training somewhere, there was a real purpose and we were helping these people reclaim their country,” said McArthur. “I was just happy to be part of something much bigger than myself. It was very rewarding and these guys were really appreciative of the time we spent with them.”
Canada has been training military troops in Ukraine since 2015 and has now taught military tactics to more than 39,000 Ukrainians.
“Some of them were just there because they were being made to, but there was a lot of really intense love for their country that was spurring them forward,” said McArthur. “It was quite the thing to see that they were doing it, partly because fate gave them no choice but also partly because it was the right thing to do.”
Very few of the Ukrainian participants understood English.
“The interpreters were the unsung heroes, without them we wouldn’t have gotten to where we did get,” said McArthur. “Maybe two or three per platoon that spoke a little bit of English, most of them, not a bit.”
He says after the war ends he hopes to one day go to Ukraine to find some of the people he worked with in England.
“That would be pretty neat to see somebody who might remember me from the training program,” he said.
Born and raised in Prince George, McArthur joined the army when he was in his early 20s but left shortly after receiving his basic training and took a job with the province as a prison guard. He jumped at the chance to become a reservist when the RMR Bravo Company light infantry unit was revived in October 2011 as one of the first to join the local regiment.
A graduate of O’Grady Catholic High School, McArthur served as a section commander, rifleman and machine-gunner. Now, as an A-Class reservist he’s now second in command for one of the Rangers' infantry sections.
“There’s only four of us left from that original group,” said the 41-year-old McArthur.
“I like the fact that there’s a camaraderie you just don’t find anywhere else,” he said. “When you’re in the thick of it with a bunch of guys, running and sweating, you create this bond and it feels like you’ve been friends for years.”
Military service runs in his family. Both McArthur’s grandfathers and his great-uncle served in the Second World War. His youngest daughter Danica, 14, wants to join the air force to become a pilot.
Saturday’s Remembrance Day ceremonies start at 9:15 a.m. at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre and McArthur hopes to see a big crowd there and at the city hall cenotaph at Veteran’s Plaza.
“It’s just remembering,” he said. “You never know what’s going to happen in your life and if people don’t take up that mantle , who is there to stand against the real evil in the world.”
