Understanding the Rules of Engagement
Heroes Remember
Understanding the Rules of Engagement
What you have to deal with,
I will give you an example.
You always have to have a couple
of seconds of thinking what
you’re going to do.
You cannot be like a western John Wayne
and pull out the gun and shoot.
Our rules of engagement were quite clear.
If he shoots you and miss you then you
can shoot back, simple as that.
You don’t shoot first and lucky for
us they didn’t shoot but
the rule was very clear.
And you never know because
a guy can wake up... we had case
where soldier got killed by the officer
in another country because he was
asleep on post and that’s the war.
The officer will wake him up and
kill him in from where the Canadian
guy used to sit but for them
that was war that was different.
One thing the Canadians we are
recognized for is our generosity because
the guys on the post at night we had
plenty of food, we had box lunch,
we had heat lunch, stuff like that and
we used to give it to the other soldier.
It doesn’t matter if he was a,
what country he was from,
we give him food because those guys
didn’t have any good food.
For us that was just a normal thing to do
because that’s the way we grew up.
But the rules of engagement is for a
split second you have to decide
what you’re going to do and you have
to be sure what you are doing though
because it will haunt you for the rest
of your life if you do the wrong action.
Even if it’s a policeman
it’s the same thing.
I walk to a case one day and the guy is
with a chain saw destroying his house
because his wife quit him and
all that stuff and what I did instead of
taking the gun and shooting him because
he was a life threat, I just talked to him
about his son and my son then the
guy changed his mind and dropped the
chain saw and it was much easier.
You have to find a point
to relate to that person.
It’s easy when you are in a safe area
when it’s the only threat you have but
if you’re in the country where
everything could be a threat,
you don’t have that luxury.
You’re driving on the road and the mine,
in my case you’re driving on the road and
the mine blow up well that’s an accident
in the 70’s because that was left
over from the war.
In Afghanistan, if you drive on the road and
the mine miss you they’ll move it
the morning after to make sure it get you.
It’s not the same thing.
It’s not the same mentality anymore
because we used to be a country of peace,
except when you have no choice,
you have to go and fight and
Afghans have changed the way we are
thinking because we realize that
sometimes you have to go and
fight to stop the evil from coming to you
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