Poor Living Conditions but Great Food!

Heroes Remember

Poor Living Conditions but Great Food!

Transcript

Well, when we got down there we were in an old sugar factory so you got to think of big, big buildings for processing sugar. We had three big warehouses around us and they put our sleeping quarters inside so you couldn’t really, just looked like a building although all the constantine wire and everything all around. You knew the military was there. We were kind of in the bottom of a valley, not the ideal place, we were… bad for snipers, they could hit us if they wanted to but most of us tend to stay inside the building and the buildings lined the place so if you are going to walk out you’re in the middle of the building so they really couldn’t see you anyway. And we slept in Quonset huts, inside there; they’re the big buildings they put in there and eight to a room. You just put sheets up to block off a little bit of privacy, but you still heard the guy next to you snoring all night and everything like that and rats running underneath all night long. Your steps going up in the place were raised up so the rats couldn’t get up inside them and rat bait underneath and there’s cats, wild animals everywhere. It was different, it was, you know, only a little bit of running water on the camp but as soon as you go down there to brush your teeth or wash your hands a big sign says, “Do not use the water to brush your teeth.” You’re supposed to walk around with bottled water all the time and things like that so. The only latrines were in the middle of the camps, where you had to go to the bathroom you had to run, there was only six or seven for a camp of two hundred. Our food was great. The cooks were in the same building as we were. They had a really good set up. Most of our food came from Denmark, Sweden, places like that. All the milk, had local contracts for bread with the local bakers they showed up every day. It was probably a bad thing, we ate so much bread and everything over there and a lot of us ate Nutella for the first time and things like that. Growing up in Canada was a common place, but now all of a sudden in the late 90’s it wasn’t because we all seen it over there and the different products like that and the fish and lots of food. That was never an issue. Our cooks were very good actually.

Description

In sleeping quarters constructed within an old sugar factory, Mr. Williams details the conditions as fair yet speaks highly of the type of food provided.

Andy Williams

Mr. Williams was born June 24, 1964 in Trenton, Ontario. His father being in the Air Force, Mr. Williams had the strong desire to join, however, when his time came, the decision for service would be army and began his training career as an army medic. In 1985 he joined as a reservist and spent 25 years with the Regular Force. In 1997, Mr. Williams was deployed to Bosnia with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse Royal Canadians holding rank of master corporal. Another opportunity for a posting was exercised in 1998 when he deployed to Kosovo, this time with the 1 Service Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. Mr. William’s army career as a medic took him to many In-Canada posting serving with the Canadian military and upon retirement resides in Berwick, Nova Scotia with his wife and family.

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