Remembrance Day - Peacekeeping Families

It’s a strain on his family when Captain Cameron Pow, 39, has to leave his wife and two young daughters behind when he goes on peacekeeping missions overseas.

Captain Pow, a Canadian Forces helicopter pilot of 13 years, is married to Tanya Pow, 42, and has two daughters, Alicia, 6 and a half, and Emma, 4.

“If you’re single, it’s not bad. It’s more work on my wife,” says Captain Pow about being away from home on missions.

“There’s moments we’re very proud, but we miss him,” says Tanya. It puts stress on the family she says, as this is the third city they’ve lived over the last seven years, the other two being Fredericton and Edmonton. The family has moved 12 times in the last 10 years.

“It’s very difficult – there’s no extended family near,” says Tanya, who has gained a lot of respect for single parents when her husband went overseas.

Captain Pow’s children Alicia and Emma only said a drawn out, “Yeah,” when asked if they missed their dad when he’s away.

He misses his family, but Captain Pow says it’s different being away on a mission. He’s never alone serving because he’s always with his crew members. “We share stories to buddies, because they understand,” says Captain Pow, who also jokes, we become “kind of like bff’s [best friends forever].”

Captain Pow’s oldest daughter, Alicia, is educated about her dad’s medals. She points to one and says, “This one’s from Afghanistan.”

Alicia is correct; Captain Pow’s second mission took him to Afghanistan for five months in 2008/9 where he worked to stabilize the country. Captain Pow said this peacekeeping mission was “more dangerous” because he was protecting Chinook helicopters, which are used for troop and supply movement. He came home from Afghanistan on Mother’s Day in 2009.

The other two medals he has are from Bosnia, where Captain Pow was an air taxi for people and supplies. This was his first mission that lasted eight months in 2003 where he worked to restore peace against the civil war in Bosnia.

While Dad is away on peacekeeping missions, the family keeps in touch with him over Skype or on the phone. This can make it manageable says wife, Tanya, “As far away as he was, he was still involved in our lives.”

And when Dad is home, he let’s his family experience some of his work. Captain Pow took his wife and two daughters in a helicopter from Fredericton, N.S. to New York, N.Y. They got to go around the Statue of Liberty twice. The two daughters, Alicia and Emma, both smiled and said, “It’s loud.”

Captain Pow always loved planes when he was little, and his mom was a nurse in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which kept him close to planes. His wife, Tanya, jokes, “Lego planes didn’t cut it for him.”

Right now Captain Pow is taking a helicopter flying course in Portage la Prairie. The course normally takes six to nine months to complete, but because of his experience, it will only take him six to eight weeks.

For his next mission, whether peacekeeping or not, Captain Pow can get anywhere from a year to a weeks notice before he has to go.