Service Members, Family, and Friends of NORAD and USNORTHCOM,

Like many of you, I awoke this morning to a news story titled, “Secret Pentagon e-mails suggest distrust of Canada.”  I would have not spent another moment of thought on this story if I hadn’t realized that someone is actually taking these allegations seriously.

Unfortunately, no one called NORAD and U.S. Northern Command to ask us our thoughts on this theory.  If they had, I would gladly have educated the questioner on the long-standing and proud tradition of cooperation between the nations of Canada and the United States under the North American Aerospace Defense Agreement.

Since 1940, when U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King met to discuss the war in Europe and the mutual defense of North America, our nations have expanded and reinforced that relationship. Since 1957, when the first “North American Air Defense Command” was formed, U.S. and Canadian Forces have worked side-by-side under the NORAD banner to perform aerospace warning and aerospace control in defense of our homelands.

Today, more than 300 Canadian Forces work in the United States with the “North American Aerospace Defense Command,” where we continue with our original charter and the addition of maritime warning to deter and detect potential threats and ultimately defend our homelands. Under one command, every day, the U.S. and Canada share critical intelligence, resources, policy and procedures necessary to complete our mission. Ours is a trust forged by a half-century of active and comprehensive defense of North America. If any question remains of the trust between our nations, let the success of NORAD be the answer.