Members of the international brotherhood of paratroopers are defending the disbanded Canadian Airborne Regiment.
"These guys have heroes dating from World War Two, it's wrong to brand the whole unit for the crimes of a few," retired Staff Sgt. Mike Stocker, a former U.S. Green Beret and president of the Special Forces Association of St. Louis, told QMI Agency. "They were super tight-knit, real tough and real professional. It's unfair, it's as if they have taken their swords, broken them and branded them all. As a paratrooper, I stand behind them."
The Canadian Airborne Regiment was a specialized group of army soldiers selected to jump out of airplanes into hostile territory. The group traces back to the Second World War's First Canadian Parachute Battalion, and the First Special Service Force (FSSF) known as the Black Devils. The American heirs to the Black Devils are the Green Berets.
But the elite Canadian army group was "disbanded in disgrace" by the Liberal government led by former prime minister Jean Chretien in 1995 after Somali teenager Shidane Arone was beaten and killed during a mission in the war-torn country. Several soldiers were court-martialled, and after a controversial hazing video surfaced, the entire regiment was stood down.
The Black Devils was a historic joint-fighting unit between Canada and the United States during the Second World War. The Canadian Airborne Regiment still carried the crossed-arrow and spear-head battle honours of the Black Devils until it was disbanded. Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) and Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) carry them now.
Retired Sgt.-Maj. Gordon Sims, 89, was a Canadian member of the Devils who fought against the Nazis in Italy and France.
"At first, I had felt we had been dishonoured by the Airborne," Sims said.
"But my feelings are tempered now -- it was a couple of radical guys who have tarnished the whole regiment, and should we all be painted with the same brush? No, that's what you had a stockade for."
The last commanding officer of the Canadian regiment, retired Col. Peter G. Kenward, wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize to the airborne soldiers, reinstate the colours and strike "disgrace" from the record.
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