OPERATION SHARP GUARD PAINTING

Wing Commander Col Pat Thauberger accepts the latest Greenwood Art Association commissioned painting by local artist Eileen Boyd depicting Operation Sharp Guard, a multi-year joint naval blockade in the Adriatic Sea by NATO and the Western European Union on shipments to the former Yugoslavia. To date, it is the only operation on which Canada's Aurora aircraft carried live torpedoes. Two Aurora aircraft, crew and maintainers from CFB Greenwood operated from Sigonella, Sicily during the early 1990's. Major (ret'd) Ray Cowper, the Operation's first Detachment Commander, is featured in the painting as a representative of the crews and the mission. Coincidentally, Col Thauberger was the lead navigator on this Canadian Forces mission.