Calgary remembers the fallen at memorial event in Peacekeeper Park

It was Aug. 9, 1974. A United Nations-marked Buffalo aircraft with nine Canadian peacekeepers on board was flying a resupply mission from Beirut to Damascus.

While flying over Syria, a surface-to-air missile shot the plane out of the sky, killing all nine Canadians.

It was the single largest number of peacekeepers killed in one event. On the anniversary, Peacekeepers' Day, Canada remembers them and hundreds of other Canadian service men and women who served peacekeeping and peace support operations.

Today — the closest Sunday to Aug. 9 this year — Calgarians honoured fallen peacekeepers at a memorial event at Peacekeeper Park in Garrison Green.

"There's 328 names on this wall of peacekeepers who have lost their lives in peacekeeping and peace support operations since 1950," said former peacekeeper Rick Wright, referring to the memorial in Garrison Green.

Wright served as a peacekeeper in Egypt in 1974 and Cyprus in 1979. He is also Calgary chapter president of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping and was master of ceremonies at Sunday's event.

It was a day of healing for the families at the event, according to Wright. There are always at least a few families of fallen peacekeepers who come every year, depending on when the day falls.

For Tara Bartsch, whose younger brother Daniel was killed in 2007 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, the day is a way for her to remember her brother and have a day just for peacekeepers.

"I think it's important because there isn't a lot for the fallen," she said. "There's Remembrance Day and there's Veteran's Day, but [today] is really for [peacekeepers] who haven't come back and those who are still here."

For Wright, the day is about educating Canadians about their past and future of peacekeeping, something he says changed the country and those involved for the better.

But the world that created peacekeeping after the Korean War no longer exists, Wright said. In the last two decades, Wright says Canada has not done traditional peacekeeping missions, which may involve separating combatants. But peacekeeping evolves just as the world does, according to Wright.

"The change is continuous and you have to adapt to that," he said.

"The Canadian population has to understand that there is a continuous change."

Peacekeepers day next year will take place on Aug. 17, 2023.