Canadian Forces

In the 1960s the Canadian government began searching for ways of strengthening Canada’s combat effectiveness while simultaneously reducing defense costs. Analyses of army, navy, and air force practices revealed that many tasks that the organizations performed independently could be combined to save money. Department of Defence strategists also charged that, in addition to duplicating some aspects of each other’s work, the three organizations trained for different defense strategies. The need to reduce defense expenditures and develop a coherent defense strategy pushed the government to integrate—then to unify—the forces. A national debate ensued, and despite bitter opposition, unification came into effect on February 1, 1968. The separate services of the army, navy, and air force became a single unit, the Canadian Forces.

Officials divided the new single service into functional commands. The navy and maritime air squadrons became Military Command, and the army and tactical air squadrons became Mobile Command. The rest of the air force was divided into Transport and Air Defence Commands. Other commands were formed for training, matériel, and communications, and Canadian Forces Europe became a separate command. A common dark green uniform replaced the traditional navy blue, army green, and air force blue uniforms.

By 1975, although still unified, three basic services had reemerged. Air Command reunited air responsibilities, assuming control of aircraft and pilots from Maritime and Mobile Commands. In 1985 the three services returned to traditional uniforms. Further budget cuts and force reductions in the 1990s revised the system of commands, and reduced them to the three traditional elements associated with navy, army, and air force: Maritime, Land, and Air Commands.

The Persian Gulf War (1991) marked two firsts for the CF: the first time that the CF took part in a major war as a unified force, and the first time that female members of the CF participated in combat (females were approved for active combat in 1987). Canada entered the war just days after Iraqi troops seized the tiny emirate of Kuwait in August 1990. Canada committed personnel, naval vessels, fighter jets, and medical supplies to an international military coalition led by the United States and backed by the UN. Coalition forces drove Iraqi troops to withdraw from Kuwait less than ten weeks after the coalition began its attacks. More than 4,500 Canadians served in the Persian Gulf War without a single casualty.

CF personnel remained in the Persian Gulf to help clean up the damage caused by the war. They worked to extinguish more than 700 oil well fires set by Iraqi troops and participated in an effort to clean up a giant oil spill caused by the Iraqis, who flooded the Persian Gulf with oil early in the war. Other CF personnel stayed in the Persian Gulf to serve on a UN peacekeeping force.

CF personnel have continued to carry on the international peacekeeping heritage Canada established in the years following World War II. In addition to ongoing missions in the Persian Gulf in the 1990s, CF troops have deployed to support peacekeeping efforts in the wars of Yugoslav succession, Kosovo, East Timor, and other regions of conflict throughout the world. In 2001 Canada sent CF soldiers into combat in Afghanistan to help overthrow the Taliban regime and maintained a military presence there in subsequent years.