Lee Berthiaume
A scene from Canada and the Gulf War: In their own words, a video by The Memory Project, a program of Historica Canada, is shown in this undated illustration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Historica Canada January 17, 2021 - 3:37 PM
OTTAWA - Petty officer Richard Austin was sitting at his position on board HMCS Athabaskan when he heard a clang. It was 1991, and the Canadian destroyer was traversing an Iraqi minefield in the Persian Gulf, on its way to rescue a crippled American warship.
âI remember waiting for the bang,â Austin recalls of those tense few moments nearly 30 years later. âLooking at the two pictures of my sons on the top of the weapons panel. The bang never came.â