In the first week of 2010, Capt. Mitchell Nurse of the Royal Canadian Air Force was prepping for a mission in Vancouver 鈥� he and his team were getting ready for the Vancouver Olympics.

Nurse was a helicopter pilot with a military search and rescue team, and had spent the past several years working across much of Canada, flying people out from dangerous situations in remote areas.

But on Jan. 12, a major earthquake, followed by a series of aftershocks, struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, destroying buildings and killing tens of thousands of people.

Stationed at Trenton, Ont., Nurse knew immediately that the DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) from the base would be heading out. But the same day the quake hit, he was told his unit and their helicopters would be going, too 鈥� as part of the Canadian Forces Operation Hestia relief efforts.

鈥淎 search and rescue unit had never deployed outside of Canada,鈥� Nurse said. 鈥淭his was the first time we were being sent overseas to help.鈥�

Originally a Newfoundlander, Nurse had joined the military at the age of 17 in 2000, with a dream of flying.

He spent four years at Royal Military College in Kingston, and then cycled through several bases, seeing various types of aircraft in operation.

Ultimately, he chose to train on helicopters, as their pilots got to fly a lot 鈥� their briefings and de-briefings were much shorter than those of the jet pilots 鈥� and there was a real sense of being in motion in a helicopter, flying just 15 feet above the treetops.

He was assigned to 424 Squadron for five years, rescuing people across much of Canada, and even into the United States sometimes.

鈥淥ur area went from Quebec City to the Rockies, and from the Great Lakes to the North Pole.

They responded to an average of 300 calls a year, including sinking boats, missing persons searches, and jobs assisting the RCMP.

And because it was search and rescue work, 鈥渋t鈥檚 always dark and stormy,鈥� Nurse said.

After he learned he鈥檇 be deploying to Haiti, the next few days were a hurried round of preparations, including immunizations and giving each member of the unit a packet of emergency cash.

The team had to get the rotors off their CH-146 Griffon helicopters so they could be loaded into the massive C-17 military cargo aircraft.

Just 12 hours after that, Nurse and his team were on the ground in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Told at first he would be deploying for two weeks, he worked there for the next two months on rescue and relief missions, part of a team with five aircraft.

鈥淚t was pretty surreal,鈥� Nurse remembered.

Arriving in Haiti, they found all power and communications around the capital had been knocked out. Hospitals had been destroyed. Thousands of people were injured and had no way of getting to any adequate medical treatment. Multi-storey buildings had collapsed, the floors stacked 鈥渓ike pancakes,鈥� Nurse remembered.

鈥淩oads were completely unusable, so we were being used to ferry people and medical equipment,鈥� Nurse said.

During the following weeks, Canada would set up four field hospitals, but first they needed to get more equipment and people into the country.

The major airport in the country at Port Au Prince was too small to hold more than a few large aircraft, so the Canadians set out to open a second airport at an abandoned runway near the city of Jacmel.

Nurse鈥檚 unit did the reconnaissance to check out the site, and chopped down trees at one end of the short runway to make more room for landing planes.

He was there for the first landing of a C-130 cargo transport.

鈥淚t was not a very long runway,鈥� Nurse remembered, as it was built for light planes like Cessnas.

The first C-130 鈥渟mashed down,鈥� hit the brakes hard, and landed successfully.

鈥淚 think they actually clipped a couple of palm trees coming in,鈥� he recalled.

They spent most of the next couple of months sleeping in tents on the airfield 鈥� the first night they sheltered under the wing of a plane 鈥� and swathed in mosquito netting.

鈥淭he bugs were pretty bad,鈥� Nurse said.

Most of the flying was out into the countryside, to bring supplies to isolated communities and bring back the seriously injured.

鈥淪ometimes we were landing in the middle of villages, in riverbeds, on mountain tops,鈥� he said.

After years of flying around North America, it was strange to be in a region where there was little to no air traffic, aside from the military rescue flights.

When they did land, it could be strange.

They would drop down into a tiny village or a bare spot on a remote mountain carrying water, tarps, food, and medication, and suddenly hundreds of people would emerge.

鈥淲e were limited to flying eight hours per day, and we basically maxed it out for two months,鈥� Nurse said.

The limit on daily flights was so the crews wouldn鈥檛 burn out, he explained.

Although all their missions were humanitarian, they had a wide variety of duties. One of Nurse鈥檚 photos shows a plane carrying lumber sticking out through the open doors on either side of a helicopter, as a crew hauled building supplies that couldn鈥檛 be delivered by road.

They also delivered supplies in nets slung under the helicopters when they couldn鈥檛 fit everything into the Griffon鈥檚 interior.

The crews also had a responsibility to pick up any Canadian citizens who had been in Haiti.

A surprising number were in small villages or isolated areas, and would catch rides back to the main airports from the helicopter. Over the course of Operation Hestia, more than 1,500 Canadians would be ferried out of Haiti by Canadian Forces.

Injured Haitians were taken to the field hospitals, or out to one of the ships that Canada had offshore, which the crews also used to refuel their Griffons.

It was the first time Nurse had ever landed on the deck of a ship, but after a career landing in small spaces in the wilderness and on top of buildings, it was just another landing site, he said.

After 15 years in the military Nurse left the service and moved to 91原创.

He鈥檚 got two kids, Jack, 11, and Lily, eight, and he鈥檚 been a Scout leader for the past seven years.

鈥淣ow I can teach the kids about being safe while we鈥檙e out hiking,鈥� he said. He always thinks of it from a search and rescue perspective 鈥� how to signal distress, and the importance of telling others where you鈥檙e going, for example.

He also takes part in Remembrance Day.

鈥淚 lost a few people, a few friends, so I always think about them,鈥� he said.

Nurse noted that there鈥檚 no major military base in the Lower Mainland, which may put the military farther from people鈥檚 minds around this time of year. For many young people, he said the military history of Canada seems to stop at the Second World War.

But not all veterans are in their 80s and 90s.

鈥淚 like to represent, I guess, the modern veteran,鈥� he said.