Interviewer: When was the first time that you
really saw reality and you noticed this
isn't training anymore?
It would actually be at my Cyprus tour,
we were at the Camp Berger was the name of the,
the camp we were at but there's another one
called Flower Duhouse (sp) and it was
just a ways from camp Berger.
And one of the sides decided that they
wanted to start digging a longer trench and
building a wall, which isn't, wasn't allowed
under the UN cease fire agreement.
And I was a private then so I didn't really know,
all I knew is the sergeant came out and said,
"Yeah we gotta go up here and talk to them
and see what's, why they're building this
trench and why they're extending it."
Because you know at the cease,
and at the cease fire agreement everything
stayed as it was, you don't build up more or
add things more. So we went up there and
I don't know why he did it but I mean
you couldn't really understand them,
they were talking in their language,
and for whatever reason he decided to kick
over the wall. And the commander with his
troops pulled up their rifles and cocked them,
and pointed them right at our heads.
And it's better now but back then, you know,
I carried twenty rounds in one magazine.
A magazine will hold thirty rounds and
you usually have five magazines on you,
full of thirty rounds each.
In other tours you did but this one you
didn't because of agreements I guess and
you know training took over,
took over immediately following my
nervousness and he backed off the,
my sergeant backed off right away when
he seen that because you know there's
one rifle and he had a pistol that was it and
you got a whole platoon of belligerents
there saying we're gonna kill ya, you know,
if that's what they were saying.
Couldn't understand them so we backed off,
turned around and left and I think that
was really my first time, my first taste
of having someone not happy with you
that wasn't you know Canadian.
Like you do your work up trainings and
you work up to live fire you know here
in Canada and it's all safety orientated
and you know that a lot of times that the
positions you're attacking aren't going to fire
back but you know these people were there
ready with full ammo to fire back if he would
have kicked something else down.
I don't know why he ever did that but...
Interviewer: Was that the first time someone
put a gun to your head?
Yep. Yeah that was the first time.
And it was a big gun. So yeah, that was a,
that was a good reality check and it was also,
I think it was a test, it was, you know how
did I react like we didn't go after them or
anything but we, we remained relatively calm
and you know backed off and did what I
think should have been done in the first place
and reported it to higher and, you know
where ever higher took that. You know and
dealt with them you know I don't think that
was at our level to deal with it but yeah...