"C" is for: Croatia 1993

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Balkan War. I was deployed to Daruvar Croatia in September of 1992 on the second rotation to the Former Yugoslavia. The Canadian contingent had moved from Sarajevo, Bosnia and set up a camp in Croatia in the disputed areas. The Van Doos were the outfit we replaced. I spent 6 months there with 3 PPCLI and then when my tour was finished they were looking for volunteers to stay behind with our replacements 2 PPCLI. I decided to stay as at the time I was single, had no commitments in Canada and to tell you the truth, I loved being overseas and doing what I thought was real work as opposed to running around Wainwright and playing war. On top of that I was making an extra $1000 a month!/p pI was in 12 Platoon D Company and part of the platoon headquarters group. I primarily drove an M-113 armoured personnel carrier, but I also had been a resupply driver on my first tour, driving a "deuce and a half" all over the DMZ. I also took part in roadside checks, patrols and a few raids on Serbian or Croatian locations to capture weapons and so on.After almost a year I had about had it with being away from Canada and so was on my final countdown of about a month when we got the callout to move into the Medak pocket. I don't remember much about the whole thing. They had done a pretty thorough ethnic cleansing of the area prior to us arriving, the houses were still on fire and smoke was everywhere. The Croat troops were lined up on the side of the dirt trail as we moved in and I remember identifying the various types of Soviet vehicles as we went along. I wanted to take some pictures but was too worried about pissing off the soldiers, besides I was too busy concentrating on guiding our APC along.

My platoon ended up being deployed on a flank. We dismounted grabbed our rucksacks and started humping up this big hill. We set up an all around defence and set up some patrols and observation posts. As we made our way up the hill, we were basically occupying trenches and positions as the Croats left them. There were a few dead soldiers lying in the bushes. Seems what they did was use the captured Serb soldiers to haul their gear and so on up this hill. When they were finished with them, they shot them and rolled them off to the side. pI remember this one soldier was lying on his back near a tree. His right leg was crossed over his left and his head was cocked to the left. I don't remember seeing any obvious gunshot wounds. The only thing I remember is that in his right hand he had a comb. One of those little black combs men keep in their back pockets. It seemed so strange.

The big danger for us was mines and booby traps. Eventually we came down off the hill and rejoined our company. A couple of weeks later I think it was we returned to Canada. I think we were probably in Winnipeg before returning to our home base in Victoria, BC. When I got to Work Point barracks the CO was there to shake our hands. By then my old unit, 3 PPCLI had been disbanded and remnants reassigned to Winnipeg or as in my case I went to Calgary.

I heard later that this Medak Pocket thing was a big deal, but I didn't really think of it at the time. We were all augmentees to the 2nd Battalion and my old 12 Platoon was gone as soon as we hit the ground in Canada.

Later I heard we had won the Governor General's Commendation for the mission, but I never knew until it was too late. I was out of the military by then. DND sent me the medal in the mail. I would rather have had the chance to see my old friends but what can you do?

I always think of that dead Serbian on Remembrance Day.