Bob Bergen - Scattering Chaff: Canadian Air Power and Censorship during the Kosovo War

Beyond Boundaries: Canadian Defence
and Strategic Studies Series

Rob Huebert, Series Editor

ISSN 1716-2645 (Print) ISSN 1925-2919 (Online)

Canadas role in international military and strategic studies ranges from peace-building and Arctic sovereignty to unconventional warfare and domestic security. This series provides narratives and analyses of the Canadian military from both an historical and a contemporary perspective.

No. 1 The Generals: The Canadian Armys Senior Commanders in the Second World War
J.L. Granatstein

No. 2 Art and Memorial: The Forgotten History of Canadas War Art
Laura Brandon

No. 3 In the National Interest: Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 19092009
Greg Donaghy and Michael K. Carroll

No. 4 Long Night of the Tankers: Hitlers War Against Caribbean Oil
David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig

No. 5 Fishing for a Solution: Canadas Fisheries Relations with the European Union, 19772013
Donald Barry, Bob Applebaum, and Earl Wiseman

No. 6 From Kinshasa to Kandahar: Canada and Fragile States in Historical Perspective
Michael K. Carroll and Greg Donaghy

No. 7 The Frontier of Patriotism: Alberta and the First World War
Adriana A. Davies and Jeff Keshen

No. 8 Chinas Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean for Canada
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Adam Lajeunesse, James Manicom, and Frdric Lasserre

No. 9 Scattering Chaff: Canadian Air Power and Censorship during the Kosovo War
Bob Bergen

2019 Bob Bergen

University of Calgary Press

2500 University Drive NW

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2N 1N4

press.ucalgary.ca

This book is available as an ebook which is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The publisher should be contacted for any commercial use which falls outside the terms of that license.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bergen, Bob, 1949-, author
Scattering chaff : Canadian air power and censorship during
the Kosovo War / Bob Bergen.

(Beyond boundaries : Canadian defence and strategic studies series,
1716-2645 ; no. 9)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77385-030-6 (softcover).ISBN 978-1-77385-032-0 (PDF).
ISBN 978-1-77385-033-7 (EPUB).ISBN 978-1-77385-034-4 (Kindle).
ISBN 978-1-77385-031-3 (open access PDF)

1. Kosovo War, 1998-1999Aerial operations, Canadian. 2. Kosovo
War, 1998-1999CensorshipCanada. I. Title. II. Series: Beyond
boundaries series ; no. 9

DR2087.5.B47 2019 949.710315 C2018-906435-8
C2018-906436-6

The University of Calgary Press acknowledges the support of the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund for our publications. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

This book has been published with the support of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies.

Copyediting by Peter Enman

Cover image: GBU-10s over Croatia. Photo courtesy of Travis Brassington.

Cover design, page design, and typesetting by Melina Cusano

In memory of Lois,
my Mom,
who taught me to love reading

This book would not exist if not for the friendship and generosity of three of Canadas pre-eminent scholars, beginning with Dr. David J. Bercuson, who, one day over lunch, offered me the opportunity to pursue a PhD with him at the University of Calgarys Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. Although I thought I knew a lot about the news media after twenty-five years as a journalist, my co-supervisor Dr. David Taras led me to think about journalism in ways I never had before. His wisdom, guidance, and unfailing support have been invaluable. Dr. John Ferris was instrumental in bringing this study to the manuscript submission stage. Brian Scrivener, Director of the University of Calgary Press, is right: a book truly is a team effort.

I am indebted to the Canadian Armed Forcesfrom the corporals to the generalsfor all its help. The assistance of Col. W.R.R. Cleland, Commander of 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, was crucial to this study. Without Col. Clelands permission to interview his servicemen and women, I would not have received the ethical approval necessary to conduct research involving human subjects. Col. Andr Viens, Commander of 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec, made another major component of the research possible by similarly allowing me to interview his personnel there. Cols. Cleland and Viens want Canadians to know what their men and women did during the Kosovo war. Also generous with their time and assistance were Maj. Luc Gaudet and the late Eric Cameron of the National Defence Public Affairs Office, Calgary (Prairie Region & Northern Area). They provided me with numerous records and introductions that, at one point, took me to the highest-ranking officer in the Canadian Forces, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Ray Henault, who was also gracious with his time. Many of the original Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces documents that fleshed out the bare bones of my ideas about the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 1999 Kosovo air war were obtained using the federal Access to Information Act . I must thank the Departments Director of Access to Information and Privacy, the staff, and the Canadian Forces and National Defence personnel for their responses to my many requests.

Some of Canadas most prominent journalists went far out of their way to share their experiences in Aviano, Italy, during the Kosovo war. Among them were the CBCs Paul Workman in Paris, France; his colleague Neil Macdonald in Washington, DC; and the Globe and Mail s Geoffrey York in Beijing, China. Lastly, I must single out CTVs Washington bureau chief Joy Malbon for her televised interview from Aviano with a Canadian Forces CF-18 pilotwho had his back to the camerawhich inspired my research.

AAA Anti-aircraft artillery

AAR Air-to-Air Refuelling

ACC Air Component Commander

ACE Aviation Combat Element

ADM (PA) Assistant Deputy Minister (Public Affairs)

AETE Aeronautical Engineering and Test Establishment

Air Ops Air Operations

AMEs Aircraft Maintenance Engineers

AMIRS Advanced Multi-role Infrared Sensor

AOR Area of Responsibility

ATO Air Tasking Order

AWACS E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System

BGen. or Brig. Gen. Brigadier General

CADPAT Canadian Disruptive Pattern

CANFORME Canadian Forces Middle East

CANSOCOM Canadian Operations Support Command

CAP Combat Air Patrol

Capt. Captain

CAS Close Air Support

CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

CDS Chief of Defence Staff

CEFCOM Canadian Expeditionary Force Command

CF Canadian Forces

CFACC Combined Forces Air Component Controller

CFB Canadian Forces Base

CF-18 or CF-188 McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 naval fighter jet aircraft (CF-18 Hornet)

CFCC Canadian Forces Combat Camera