NATO flag flying at Seacow Head Lighthouse this past spring. (Photo courtesy of Liz Hubert)
July 15, 2024. On July 10, 2024, a 75th NATO Anniversary Commemoration was held at Seacow Head Lighthouse in Fernwood, Prince Edward Island, as part of the official opening ceremonies for the Lighthouse as a museum. The lighthouse itself has been in existence since 1864, standing beside Fernwood’s red cliffs.
Postcard of Seacow Head Lighthouse.
It has been featured in the Road To Avonlea TV series, based on the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which I grew up reading. When Pieter was asked to be one of the guest speakers at the 75th NATO Anniversary Commemoration at this beautiful location, I was really hoping he’d say ‘yes’.
Seacow Head Lighthouse was featured in the Road To Avonlea TV series. (Photo source: YouTube)
….Pieter shared his experience at a NATO base in Germany….
Rheine tile. (Photo courtesy of Pieter Valkenburg)
Pieter did agree to speak briefly about his deployment at a NATO base in Rheine, Germany, as a NIKE Missile Tracking Operator, while he was serving with the Royal Netherlands Air Force during the Cold War. He reminded us of how alert the base had to be in case of an attack – when the NIKE guided nuclear missiles would be used as an anti-aircraft surface to air system.
Pieter in Rheine in 2006, looking at the map to see where the NATO base had been located. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
….Pieter was surprised to see an old Soviet early warning system in Ukraine ….
Daria and Pieter at the outskirts of Bolekhiv, Ukraine in 2007. (Photo courtesy of Valkenburg Family)
He explained that “…luckily, during my deployment, the missiles were never activated. It didn’t really hit home for me the dangerous position we were in until decades later when my wife and I were in Ukraine in 2007. Near the town of Zolichev in Western Ukraine, we saw the remnants of an early warning system aimed at Western Europe. Yes…. it was an anti-aircraft defence station similar to where I had worked in Rheine, but operated by the Soviets….”
Of course we stopped to take another look, as Pieter recounted in his presentation. “…It was no longer in use and locals had stripped all the usable materials from the inside, like electrical wiring and valuable metals. All that was left was the shell and the round radars….”
The anti-aircraft defence station near Zolichev had not been dismantled in 2007. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
Pieter’s anecdote was a reminder that geopolitics can bring long-forgotten conflicts into today’s world. “…The station in Rheine had been completely dismantled, and was a meadow when we last visited there in 2006. So I asked Slav, our Ukrainian driver, why the Russians didn’t dismantle their station when they left. The answer? Slav believed that the Russians were hoping to use it again in the future – once Ukraine got over ‘this silly notion of independence’ – as he put it. A chilling comment that now seems prophetic….”
…. ‘May we never forget those who have been affected by war’ ….
Pieter’s presentation ended with him saying that “….I was proud to serve in Rheine as a member of NATO so many years ago, doing my small part in keeping peace during the Cold War. May we never forget those who have been affected by war. Thank you….”
Among the NATO representatives present on July 10, 2024 were John Yeo, Atlantic Regional Director for NATO Veterans of Canada; guest speaker Pieter Valkenburg, Public Relations Officer for Borden-Carleton Legion; and keynote speaker Clare Hutchinson, former NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace, and Security.
Left to right: John Yeo, Pieter Valkenburg, Clare Hutchinson. (Photo credit: Daria Valkenburg)
It was fitting that NATO, seen as a beacon of hope and peace to many, had its 75th anniversary commemorated beside a lighthouse in a beautiful and peaceful landscape. Thank you to The Friends of Seacow Head Lighthouse organizing committee – Dr. Elisabeth Hubert, PhD, Tom Sherry, and Jim MacFarlane – for inviting Pieter to speak.
Do you have photos or information to share? Email Pieter at memorialtrail@gmail.com, comment on the blog, or tweet to @researchmemori1.
© Daria Valkenburg
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On The War Memorial Trail Research Project........ with Pieter and Daria Valkenburg 