REGINA -- Dick Bailey said it wasn’t until after his father died that he became interested in his dad's service in the Second World War.
Bailey said he has lots of questions now his father, Richard, is no longer alive.
“You don't know what you have until it's gone,” Bailey said while showing a collection of photographs of his father.
Bailey and his father were close. He tells stories of them going hunting and fishing together.
However, he sometimes wonders how the war affected his father.
"I wondered about it then and I never asked him about it," Bailey said. "When I look back now at his life, I think he was troubled."
Bailey's father was a member of The First Special Service Force.
The troop, which had men from Canada and the United States, underwent specialized training that included mountain climbing, skiing and parachuting.
This force would be embarking on extremely dangerous missions to fight the enemy, said retired Col. Randy Brooks, the former commanding officer of the Royal Regina Rifles.
"They did need rough, tough men," Brooks said. "With rough tough prairie boys, I think we're probably the right people for the job. A lot of volunteers came from the prairies, including the Regina Rifles."
The troop was deployed in 1942 to attack the Germans head-on. Many of those missions would include hand-to-hand combat.
The First Special Service Force is most known for The Battle of Mount La Difensa in 1943.
The German army was occupying the summit of the mountain. For weeks, the allies were trying to get through the pass, but it was difficult.
As a result, the First Special Service Force was called to help.
Bailey explained the force was able to climb the side of a mountain where the Germans would never expect them.
"One of the regiments of The First Special Service Force reached the top and dispatched the Germans," he said.
The force eventually received the nickname, The Black Devils.
"At night they would blacken their faces, so they wouldn't show, and they'd go off behind the lines to dispatch the Germans," Bailey said.
The story of The First Special Service Force has been told many times in several books.
In 1968, a movie was also produced about the forced called The Devil's Brigade.
Front: C.A. Shadricks, C.W. Graffunder, G.R. Fisher, J.G. Replin, C.E. Greene - Back: Paul Nystrom, Wm. Hutchinson, D.L. Bachler, H.S. Singleton, W.N.Short, J.E. Gibson. (Supplied Becky Nystrom)
Every year since 1947, members of the force and their families have re-united in Canada or the United States, except for 2020 because of COVID-19.
"The men of the force had a bond with each other, that was unbreakable," said Thomas LeBlanc, whose father, Sgt. Medric LeBlanc, was part of the troop.
"They were tight, even though they were Canadian and the USA," he said.
LeBlanc, who is a member of The First Special Service Force Association, which aims to bring families of the men who served in the force together, said it’s important to share these stories.
"If we don't do this, history will get lost," he said.
