For Realtor Ray Carlson, being accepted by the army in 1952 at the age of 16 as a boy soldier was a God-send.
He’d spent all of his life to that point in orphanages and foster homes and the army was the answer to his long-yearned-for wishes for a structured life.
He was a young prairie farm boy who had always had a fascination with the military and dreamed of being a career soldier one day. When an ad in the newspaper showed up for boy soldiers, he acted on it right away.
His preference was to be a motor mechanic but with no room for him in that field, he was given the opportunity to join the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers unit where he learned to be a weapons technician.
Interestingly, he found that more than half of his fellow soldiers also came from broken homes and unstructured lives.
Carlson did his basic training and specialty training in Kingston, Ontario then moved on to Wainright, Alberta where he repaired weapons for three years.
When he received orders in 1958 to take up a position at the Jericho Beach Garrison in Vancouver, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven, with Jericho known as a prime location with no shortage of beautiful women.
He met and married his wife, Donna, and within a month of the wedding, was shipped off to the Gaza Strip in the Middle East as a United Nations Peacekeeper.
It’s a tumultuous strip of land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea which borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. It was, and continues to be, an area of battle between the two countries.
Carlson spent a year in Gaza and says that while he didn’t consider his life to be in danger while there, he saw a few of his fellow soldiers lose their lives to land mines.
“You didn’t consider it dangerous until something happened. It’s amazing the similarities between Gaza and Afghanistan,” he says.
He lived for an entire year in a tent situated in a camp with 1,000 other peacekeeping soldiers from Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the former Yugoslavia and Brazil. Outdoor temperatures would easily rise to 52 Celsius but there were no options other than to just get used to it.
While some of his fellow Canadians patrolled the demilitarized zone in armoured vehicles, his job was to keep weapons in good repair back at the camp. He had several Palestinians working in the camp with him and at night, Carlson would have to drive them home. He had to go through Egyptian checkpoints and although he never had a serious encounter, he always traveled with a sub-machine gun on his lap.
“The most disturbing part about being in Gaza was the disregard for human life. It meant nothing. Kids here have no idea of what other people go through on a day to day basis. “
Being stationed in the Mediterranean had its upside, too, with the beach nearby for a swim after work and the close proximity to places like Syria, Lebanon, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, all which Carlson had the opportunity to visit.
He and his buddies would spend their week-long R and R breaks in Beirut City, which he regards as having been one of the most gorgeous places he’s ever been.
“Later, when I saw how the fighting had destroyed that beautiful city, I wondered how people could do that. “
His tour of duty was up after one year and he was sent home with no hope of being sent oversees any time soon and little hope for immediate advancement. Carlson had too much energy to burn and a desire to move ahead so he quit the army after 10 years of service and explored other paths which at one time included being mayor of 100 Mile House.
His love for the military never lessened and he became involved as a commanding officer with the local cadet core and is a founding member and former patrol commander of the 100 Mile House Patrol of the 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol.
Carlson describes Rangers as the eyes, ears and guides for the regular military should problems in this area ever arise.
At 76 years of age, he is still proud to be an active member and takes part in their regular training exercises. Their most recent was a multi-day ATV ride through the back-country to Clearwater where members slept in tents and cooked their own camp meals.
“It’s very satisfying for me to be connected to the military through the Rangers. I love every minute of it.”
Carlson will be the parade commander at the upcoming Remembrance Day ceremony in 100 Mile House and will wear his UN Peacekeepers blue beret as he has done every year.
