Description
Mr. Fraser explains the rules of engagement that all soldiers need to understand before going into action.
James Fraser
Mr. Fraser was born February 25, 1946, in North Preston, Nova Scotia. After obtaining his high school education, Mr. Fraser decided on a career in the military and joined the army. In 1967, he accepted his first tour of duty to Cyprus followed by deployments to Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Golan Heights. In his very satisfying 34-year military career, Mr. Fraser achieved the rank of Command Chief Warrant Officer with the Canadian Forces. After his retirement, he returned to Nova Scotia with his family.
Transcript
I mean you train someone to fight. Understand when you’re training any soldiers that you train, you’re training for war so you’re training to—hate to say this—is kill, but that’s what you’re being trained for. So therefore, you have to have some rules in there so that we just don’t pick up a weapon and automatically start firing. Nobody wants to be up on charge for murder or anything like that so that’s where there are clearly defined rules of when you can actually fire a weapon or when you shouldn’t. Then some of it is based on the situation, but the rules are clear, they define so that each and every one of us who have to be carrying any type of arms know that just because you are carrying it, you just can’t pick it up and you know and blow somebody away. That’s not the case. You know there is a time and a place for everything and, of course, a weapon is a last resort. You know, you try to use every means possible before you have to go to the state of forcing someone to do something by a bullet.