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Culture Shock

Heroes Remember

Culture Shock

Transcript
There really wasn’t too much training to go into the different cultural area let’s say. Most of the training, some of the training that we had anyway, was in Germany where we went on the economy, which is out on the normal towns and stuff like that. We actually did one huge exercise the first year I was in Germany, and you actually parked in people’s yards, slept in their barns as if you were at war and obviously you talked with the people and stuff like that. And that was quite different, but it still didn’t really get to the level of reality in Bosnia. It was just very different. You’d see somebody, we’d drop food at a warehouse one day and there would be like high shrubs around it in the park or whatever with a path and the next day you drive by and you’d see a dead body laying in the path. Well, you pretty well conclude that somebody went to pick up food, they were leaving, got shot and somebody took their food. You’re trying to think of why, you know, what would drive somebody to do that, you know. It was pretty bad in the sense that you would see a bus drive by and hear a shot or two, the bus would pull over and they would bring a body out of it because there were snipers there shooting at innocent women and children constantly. It just didn’t make sense in that respect, so it’s just trying to let that go and deal with what you had to deal with.
Description

Mr. Slusar speaks about the culture shock he felt when trying to understand the customs of the local people in a city with very different surroundings.

Clint Slusar

Mr. Slusar was born September 28, 1967 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. After making the decision to join the military, Mr. Slusar enlisted in the army with the 3 Royal Canadian Regiment. After spending time in Germany training as a combat soldier, Mr. Slusar travelled with his fellow soldiers to Sarajevo in 1992 as part of November Company Group. Because of his service during his tour in Sarajevo, Mr. Slusar was awarded The Commander-In-Chief Unit commendation for his participation in securing the Sarajevo Airport for humanitarian relief flights and escorting these relief convoys into the city. Mr. Slusar retired from the military for personal reasons and has a great amount of pride for his service in Sarajevo.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:03
Person Interviewed:
Clint Slusar
War, Conflict or Mission:
Canadian Armed Forces
Location/Theatre:
Sarajevo
Battle/Campaign:
Sarajevo
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Royal Canadian Regiment
Rank:
Corporal
Occupation:
Rifleman

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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