Aware of Rules of Engagement on Duty

The rules of engagement to begin with were fairly open. It was under Operation Enduring Freedom which was the original American mission and so the rules of engagement were flexible enough I felt that we were well protected inside of those rules of engagement. For instance, we would be rocketed on CAF on a fairly regular basis but whenever that happened the counter battery measures would send helicopters off to the lookout and find where people were setting up their rockets and so you never really had the sense that people were close to the base. You heard explosions but you didn’t hear rockets going off. When NATO took over later on the rules of engagement shrunk so when I was out on the road if I had trouble I always knew from my initial briefing before I left what assets we had to call on. You had artillery, you could call in for air support. You had people you could call to help you if you really needed it which was important for us because we were small and we were light and we never really had enough men or equipment, you know, to really hold out for long and we really didn’t have much, well there was no armour, let’s put it that way. Always driving around in the G wagons so at least we could call for help if we needed it. When NATO came in, it sounded like it was going to go to committee before we got help and that was quite a bit less comfortable because you couldn’t just call for help, you could call for help and then wait. And what we found is after NATO took over they no longer sent helicopters out to chase down people who were shooting rockets so the rockets got closer and closer to the point where you could hear them detonate and then they would land so they were literally right outside the wire towards the end. That was less comfortable. The armour in the doors was meant to stop bullets, it wasn’t meant to stop anything else. We didn’t have any LAV’s so we essentially had small arms in light vehicles is what we had and of course the big trucks didn’t have much armour at all.

With a bit of flexibility regarding rules of engagement, Mr. Moroz explains the importance of knowing the rules and appropriate action to be taken in respect to the duties of the day.

Vincent Moroz

Mr. Vincent Moroz was born November 12, 1965 in Spirit River, Alberta. In his early 20’s he worked as a prison guard in hopes of pursuing a career with the military police. This not working out, later on in life, at the age of 30 he re-joined the Reserve unit with the 49th Battalion, the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and within this role accepted a deployment to Afghanistan in 2006. Holding rank of section commander, Mr. Moroz held various responsibilities mainly in the convoy escort duty and providing support to Canadian battle groups. Being part of the Canadian Delegation commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge holds a great sense of pride and honour for his service as well as the sacrifice made by all our Canadian Veterans. Mr. Moroz resides in Spirit River, Alberta with his wife and family.