Reminiscing about time in military

By Greg Coulter

LEAMINGTON — In 1989, the world as it is today was a never-ending whirlwind of political and economic change. After nine years of fighting, Russia pulled out of Afghanistan, the Berlin Wall came down, the Malta Summit declared an end to the Cold War, the Alaskan Exxon Valdez fiasco and the launch of Game Boy only touched the surface of many news events.

Shannon Wiper, growing up in Leamington and fresh out of high school, had little idea of where his life would take him. A friend, who had enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, encouraged him to join.

He was looking forward to spending the next 20 years of his life serving his country, but through no fault of his own, it was cut short to roughly seven years.

Signing up with the army, he boarded a bus to Trenton, then a flight to CFB Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, for a 10-week gruelling basic training stint. Of the 180 recruits, 125 would graduate.

Of those 125 recruits, 30 would move on to CFB Wainwright, Alberta, for four months of infantry training. The balance of them were off to other branches of the military.

A knee injury sidelined Wiper for 10 weeks, but he was able to pick up where he left off. July 1990 saw a move to Calgary as a member of the Princess Patricia Light Infantry unit for specialty training.

It was through these training periods where he would absolutely fall in love with parachuting.

Using a rotation system through the armed forces and in coordination with the UN special peacekeeping forces, his entire company of roughly 500 members would move to Cypress for a six-month deployment. With Canada being a well-respected world leader, the time in Cypress was peaceful and friendly. Duties were primarily assistance with day-to-day issues as well as a continuation of training.

Shannon Wiper’s enlistment picture from 1989 as well as a quilt made for him by the charity “Quilts of Valor”. Founded in 2006 in Edmonton for hospitalized troops, volunteers make Canadian themed quilts to offer comfort to ill or injured, past or present Canadian Forces members. To date nearly 16,000 quilts have been made and donated across Canada. Each one is specially made and labelled for a specific service member.

A return to New Brunswick to a new home base allowed him to further his military training and move rank from private to corporal. What he enjoyed the most was his parachute training.

Throughout his career he would jump about 80 times — primarily in training — with a number of those around the world as part of Canada’s commitment to maintaining world peace and stability. Due to sensitivity and rights of privacy issues, the more dangerous missions are off limits for discussion by military personnel.

Unfortunately, it was one of those missions that would start the chain of events leading to the end of his tenure with the forces.

With 80 pounds of gear strapped on, his main chute failed to open, and he relied on his auxiliary back up. Landing hard, he suffered serious neck and back injuries which he still deals with to this day.

No longer medically fit for active duty, Wiper was forced to make some changes to his plan.

He transferred to the navy but didn’t find his duties there to be aligned with his career goals.

He spent the balance of his seven-year career as a clerk before choosing to move to civilian ranks.

Returning home, he was fortunate to be set up by a mutual friend with his future wife Marla. Her bubbly personality helps him deal with some of his own struggles that many service people of combat face.

Like many veterans, he deals with some of the horrors he has seen that the world presents to our troops in the military.

He chooses to talk with great pride of the lifelong bonds and friendships he made during his years of service.

“I can go years without seeing my former military friends,” he says. “We pick right up like we have never been apart.”

He then proudly shows off a Princess Patricia coin that he always carries.

“It was a great experience,” he adds. “There is no doubt in my mind I would have stayed in the service if it was not for my injuries.”