Michel Plouffe poses with his helmet, and the bullet that passed through it in Cyprus, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Kate Porter/CBC)Michel Plouffe poses with his helmet, and the bullet that passed through it in Cyprus, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Kate Porter/CBC)

Canada's longest-running peacekeeping mission now has its own section in the Canadian War Museum.

The Ottawa-based museum has set up a permanent display on the mission in Cyprus, where 30,000 Canadians served between 1964 and 1993.

It's the first major addition the museum has made to its permanent displays since it opened five years ago.

Canadian troops were dispatched as part of a United Nations mission to keep the peace between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

"Whereas most UN tours in Cyprus were peaceful, for many even pleasurable ... you have a situation that arose in 1974 where an invasion of 40,000 Turkish soldiers took over the island and had the United Nations caught in the middle," museum historian Andrew Burtch told CBC News.

Michel Plouffe was there in 1974 and earned a Star of Courage after helping an officer who was wounded. He has donated his medals to the museum.

Plouffe was a driver for Capt. Normand Blaquière when they were caught in crossfire between Greek and Turkish forces.

"Capt. Blaquière received a bullet in the leg, so what I did, I crawled to him and did the first aid," Plouffe said.

As firing continued, Plouffe threw his body across the officer where he had fallen into a river bed.

Then a bullet hit Plouffe's helmet and ricocheted into his jaw and shattered his teeth.

"When I spat out, the bullet fell in my hand with [pieces] of teeth. So I threw the teeth away, put the bullet in my pocket and kept giving first aid to Capt. Blaquière," he recalled.

Plouffe's Star of Courage is displayed alongside the bullet he spat out, and his helmet, with the bullet hole plainly visible.

Also on display is a simple observation post made of plywood, similar to those where peacekeepers spent long shifts, watching for trouble along the "green line," a narrow buffer zone separating combatants.

A section of the exhibit features video of the conflict and oral history told by Canadians who served on the island.

In July 1974, at the height of the conflict, two Canadians were killed by gunfire and 17 others were wounded.

With files from CBC's Kate Porter