'Heartbreaking:' Calgary army vet under fire in Ukraine mourns Wainwright losses
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Paul Hughes recalls formative months training at CFB Wainwright, and notes his own son was nearly burned to death while fighting Russians in Ukraine.
Hearing of deaths and severe injuries among members of his former 3 Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) felt like a blow to a family, said Hughes, who’s mounted 600 aid mission in Ukraine since the war started there in 2022.
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“I was a private there (in Wainwright), that could have been me — anyone who’s a Patricia. It’s just very, very sad and heartbreaking,” said Hughes.
“All of us, any group involved with the Patricias, is thinking about this. There are thousands of brothers out there. That hit home for me”
On Saturday afternoon, a wildfire on the base 420 kilometres northeast of Calgary was blown out of control by winds of up to 100 km/h, killing four members of the battalion’s Charlie Company and wounding dozens of others.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, says the military.
Hughes trained at the base in the winters of 1983 and 1984 before being posted to 3 PPCLI, with which he served Cold War duty in then-West Germany.
“I spent six months in a quonset hut with 40 guys . . . I loved it, it was very challenging — I was fresh out of high school and made some of the best friends of my life. and I did a lot of growing up,” said Hughes, who proudly hangs the red and gold PPCLI flag in his repair garage in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
He also recalled engaging in some of the same training exercises the soldiers were conducting when they were engulfed by fire.
Live ammunition igniting gras sfires wasn’t a rarity at Wainwright, said Hughes, 62, who left the military in 1987.
“It wasn’t uncommon for people to put out grass fires, especially when you have Carl Gustav (anti-tank missile) rounds going through the field,” he said.
“We expected there’d be very little protection (from grass fires) . . . it must have been just absolute chaos.”
Hughes winces when he ponders the tragedy last weekend at Wainwright as he recalls the injuries his 24-year-old son, Mac, incurred last year when he was struck by a Russian drone in southern Ukraine. The younger Hughes had joined his father on humanitarian missions in 2022, but joined the Ukrainian military in 2025.
“When I heard it was a fire, it hit home — the worst thing is fire,” said Hughes, whose son suffered third-degree burns over 30 per cent of his body but has recovered well.
“He’s got skin grafts from his knees down.”
While he expressed shock at the devastation at Wainwright, Hughes said it still pales to the carnage in Ukraine, mired in a war he and his son have lost many friends to.
A few weeks ago, Hughes said a fibre-optic Russian drone hit a gas station 200 metres from his office.
Thirty kilometres north of Kharkiv, heavy fighting has erupted, with Ukrainian troops battling their Russian foe on the countries’ border.
“What happened at Wainwright is what Ukraine is experiencing every day times 100,” said Hughes.
Hughes noted Albertans vote in a referendum on Monday, with one of the questions centred on possibly proceeding to a binding referendum on independence for the province.
The Calgarian said years of flying the Maple Leaf in Ukraine makes him staunchly on the remain side.
“I’m not telling people I’m from Alberta, I tell them I’m from Canada — people here don’t know Alberta,” said Hughes.
“The Canadian flag from an image perspective, it gets so much capital.”
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