News Release

OPERATION UNISON Draws Down

JTFA/FOIA: 07/05 - September 18, 2005

HALIFAX - HMC ships Athabaskan, Ville De Québec , and Toronto will begin their journey home to Halifax today after providing disaster relief to the U.S. Gulf coast as part of OPERATION UNISON .

“Having completed the delivery of needed humanitarian relief supplies, the manpower pool that ships provide is no longer required,” said Cmdre Dean McFadden, Commander of the Canadian Forces Task Group. “U.S. civil capacity can now do much of the heavy lifting. There will therefore be a sequential withdrawal of my personnel and the ships will be first to depart,” he added.

The capabilities remaining in the area include Dive Teams, a Composite Construction and Engineering Group, and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir William Alexander. These forces will continue to supply capabilities that remain scarce and are needed to re-establish infrastructure ashore and re-constitute waterways upon which commerce depends.

“I am extremely proud of the effort made by our sailors, soldiers and air personnel, who rallied to prepare all of the elements of the Task Group to deploy, this over the last long weekend of the summer” said Cmdre McFadden, “they were magnificently supported by the civilian workforce and by the efforts of a great many Nova-Scotians.”

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