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.
