Canadian Colonel criticized over Somalia affair promoted to General

RackMaster

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This is long overdue, to bad it had to come near the end of his career.

Hopefully this is just the start of major events that help put away the past, let those left from the Canadian Airborne Regiment heal and move on with their careers/lives.

As a side note Brig. Gen. Labbe will be getting quite the chunk of back pay. :D My rough calculations put it at approx. $62K, give or take a few grand and then take off the taxes. That must have been some party at the mess, the bell must have been ringing all night. lol

http://www.forces.gc.ca/dgcb/dppd/pdf/Reg_Force_Officers_08_e.pdf

Canadian colonel criticized over Somalia affair promoted to general

Last Updated: Friday, July 25, 2008 | 10:14 PM ET Comments38Recommend23

CBC News


A Canadian colonel whose leadership during the 1993 Somalia scandal was harshly criticized in a report on the affair has been quietly promoted to general, according to published reports.
The military has not publicized the July 2 promotion of Col. Serge Labbe to brigadier general, but the Defence Department confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen the new rank of the officer and that it will be retroactive to 2000.
Dan Dugas, the communications director for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, told the Citizen the minister signed off on the promotion based on the recommendation of Gen. Rick Hillier, who recently retired as chief of defence staff.
Labbe was the commander in charge in Somalia when Canadian peacekeepers tortured and beat to death Shidane Arone, a 16-year-old Somali boy they had taken prisoner. The military was criticized for trying to cover up the death.
A public inquiry into the affair cleared Labbe of any personal involvement in the killing, but concluded he failed to clearly enforce the rules of engagement. The inquiry, which ran from 1994 to 1997, called Labbe's failure both lamentable and inexcusable.
Since then, the Defence Department had twice denied Labbe's promotion to general. But his career continued to move forward.
In 2004, Labbe served as deputy chief of staff to Hillier when Hillier was commanding NATO troops in Kabul. At the time, Labbe worked closely with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.
Two years later, Labbe was awarded with a Meritorious Service Cross, a prestigious medal that honours military deeds performed in an outstanding professional manner. Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean presented Labbe with the award at a Rideau Hall ceremony in Ottawa.
In 2007, he was asked to take over command of Canada's Strategic Advisory Team in Kabul
 
Great news for him!

And I've said here before, I can proudly wear Canadian Airborne wings (red maple leaf) over my right pocket, on my greens.
 
I got to jump with some in '95 when I picked up my wings. I'm sorry our JM put the Canadians in the trees though.
 
The Germans did that to me a year later -'02.

Did you all know there's a very small LZ just to the left of, and past the lead edge of, Sicily DZ (as you approach it - east, I guess)? I almost managed to get to that......:doh:

Landed straddling a small tree. }:-)
 
The Germans did that to me a year later -'02.

Did you all know there's a very small LZ just to the left of, and past the lead edge of, Sicily DZ (as you approach it - east, I guess)? I almost managed to get to that......:doh:

Landed straddling a small tree. }:-)

I managed to land in a small tree on the DZ at Ft. Richardson's one of the DZ's there, after a 14 hour flight from Sandpoint NAS to Ft. Richardson in a C-119, :eek: (We refueled in Annette Island, Alaska.) My first visit to Alaska and Ft. Rich!

We got credit for a tactical night jump, even though it was VERY daylight out! The rules were later changed though! }:-):D
 
Ours was a UH-1H jump. Instead of putting them out at the panels he elected to release them at the treeline. We were flying into the wind at the time, only one jumper made the DZ...the last jumper out. 3 hit a small road that ran near the DZ and two came down in the scrub oak. The Canadians left their gear where they landed (except for the guy who hit the DZ). The riggers just cussed and fueled up the chainsaws....:D
 
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