Melvel Lorne Johnston
Staff Sergeant
RCASC - Canadian Base Unit - UNEF I
Camp Rafah
The first thing to greet Melvel Johnston upon arrival in Egypt in October of 1966 was the intense and inescapable heat of the region. Even the tropical attire he had been issued could hardly stifle the discomfort caused by temperatures that rose well over anything he had experienced prior. This was his first posting to a very desolate and relatively dangerous area, most his previous service having been spent at various bases across Canada, except for a brief stint in Continental Europe in 1957. Egypt, more specifically the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, provided an altogether new experience for the Staff Sergeant. The only thing not unique to the 40-year-old was military life itself, he had already been in for 22-years, having enlisted in October of 1944 during the Second World War. He had spent the following years acquiring a vast amount of experience and qualifications, which is why the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) pulled him for this posting. Officially, he was attached to the Canadian Base Unit (CBU) that operated as part of the UN mission UNEF I.
The CBU that Johnston joined was made up of a combination of many fellow RCASC personnel, Canadian Engineers, some specialty infantry, and personnel from the Royal Canadian Air Force (1). The bulk of the Canadians, including Melvel, were posted to Camp Rafah. This base was a simple combination of barbed wire and military buildings that sat in barely arable farmland above the Sinai dessert and just west of the Gaza Strip. Melvel’s initial job here in this biblical land would be as a transport controller, likely working with the various Canadian transport units to keep supplies moving to the UN forces throughout the region (1). Though the overall force had decreased by nearly half since it had first been created 9 years ago, it still numbered over 3,000 soldiers and that meant a vast amount of supplies still needed to be moved (1). Johnston was overly qualified to help in this logistical battle as he had successfully completed courses on ammo transportation duties, advanced air supply, air portability, clerking, and had qualified on near every truck/car that the Canadian army possessed. He would settle into this role and remained in it until January of 1967, when he was appointed a support technician.
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Destabilization
Things had remained relatively peaceful up until this point, which was a blessing considering Camp Rafah had the worlds largest trade bottleneck to its West (the Suez Canal) and the hotly contested region of Gaza directly to its East. The new year however would bring an end to this calm as tensions began rising between Israel and the various Arab states in the region. The UN force had been brought in primarily as result of the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent attempted French and English invasion (1). The tensions involving this conflict had largely subsided, but the force now remained in an attempt to try and hold together the fragile peace between Israel and Egypt (1). Perhaps Johnston saw the warning signs or heard murmurs of the potential coming of another war around the camp. There were reports of armored vehicles on the move and issues with Arab forces trying to take over UN military posts (2). If the two powerhouses went to war, the greatly outnumbered UN force of Yugoslavs, Colombians, Brazilians, Indians, Scandinavians, Indonesians, and Canadians, would be caught right in the middle.
The month of May brought a sudden shock to Johnston and the rest of the UN force who were preparing for conflict, Egypt was kicking them out (1). The country had reserved the right to do this upon the initial deployment of UN forces and the Staff Sergeant now scrambled to prepare his men and equipment for departure from the country (1). The Winnipeg, Manitoba native left Egypt very well tanned from the constant exposure to the sun and likely a little disheartened by the uncertainty of what was to occur in the region (1). He arrived back in Canada on May 30th, a handful of days later in June, the region returned to turmoil as the Six Day War broke out (1). For Johnston, Egypt was one of the last postings of his career, finally retiring in March of 1969 after some 24 years of faithful service in the military.
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Sources:
(1) Defence, National. “Government of Canada.” Canada.ca, / Gouvernement Du Canada, 11 Dec. 2018, www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/past-operations/middle-east/ready-lift.html.
(2) “The Withdrawal of UNEF from Egypt May-June 1967 Canadian Aspects.” Directorate of History Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1 Apr. 1968. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/themes/defence/caf/militaryhistory/dhh/reports/cfhq-reports/book-egypt-unef-1967-en.pdf
(1) Defence, National. “Government of Canada.” Canada.ca, / Gouvernement Du Canada, 11 Dec. 2018, www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/past-operations/middle-east/ready-lift.html.
(2) “The Withdrawal of UNEF from Egypt May-June 1967 Canadian Aspects.” Directorate of History Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1 Apr. 1968. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/themes/defence/caf/militaryhistory/dhh/reports/cfhq-reports/book-egypt-unef-1967-en.pdf