Article content material
Members of the Kingston army group marked the eightieth anniversary of the Canadian Intelligence Corps and the fortieth anniversary of the Intelligence Department with the commemoration of a brand new monument at Canadian Forces Base Kingston on Saturday.
Commercial 2
Article content material
“This monument is for Maj.-Gen. Reg Weeks, who is named the daddy of the Intelligence Department,” Maj.-Gen. Michael Wright mentioned following a ceremony to formally unveil the monument.
Weeks joined the Canadian Forces throughout the Second World Conflict and served by the Chilly Conflict.
“He constructed the inspiration of what the present Intelligence Department and Intelligence Corps is comprised of,” Wright mentioned.
“He was a member of the Intelligence Department at a pivotal time throughout the Chilly Conflict and put a number of the processes into place and constructed a basis for what the trendy Intelligence Department has advanced into.”
Weeks joined the Canadian Army in 1941. He landed with the Third Canadian Infantry Division on the seashores of Normandy in June 1944. He retired as a major-general in 1980 however later served because the Intelligence Department colonel commandant till 1996.
Commercial 3
Article content material
A parade and one-hour ceremony marked the revealing of the Weeks monument on the entrance to CFB Kingston on Saturday morning.
CFB Kingston is the house station for Canada’s Intelligence Department.
“The explanation for that’s as a result of we’ve got two of our models from the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command: the Canadian Forces College of Navy Intelligence and Joint Process Drive X, in addition to the Canadian Army Intelligence Regiment, are situated right here in Kingston,” Wright defined. “As a result of members of the Intelligence Department come by right here to do their preliminary intelligence coaching after which varied programs all through their profession, that is house station.”
Weeks’ son, Peter, was current for the ceremony and accepted a framed illustration of the monument.
Commercial 4
Article content material
“It will get very emotional once you’re speaking about your father,” Peter mentioned. “In some ways, he was my dad … rising up, he was at all times there for me. I’m simply so happy with him.”
Peter Weeks expressed that he by no means actually understood how crucial his father was to the army group.
“It’s large. The mere proven fact that they’re honouring him as we speak simply reinforces that. I at all times knew he was form of vital, however I maybe didn’t understand how vital he was,” he mentioned. “He was my dad. A good friend.”
“It’s vital to honour him,” Wright mentioned. “There have been college students right here from the Royal Navy School, younger troopers and sailors and aviators on parade, and it’s vital for them to understand they’re one thing larger, one thing that goes again 80 years for the Intelligence Corps and 40 years for the Intelligence Department, however frankly so long as Canada has set army custom. They’re a part of one thing larger.”
