Giving Aid to the Locals

To witness what another human being is capable of doing to another human being especially their own people was pretty heart breaking to say the least. Every day was different and so many people were coming and asking us for help that, you know, women had no clothes. I ended up giving this poor lady my t-shirt and a couple pairs of pants to wear because she had nothing. She had been abused by the armies there so she was in pretty rough shape by the time we got there. So it was like people like that that we helped out. Children that didn’t have their families anymore that were left to their own and so we tried to feed them while we were there and give them whatever we could spare. You know a lot of times we went without it ourselves and gave it to them. The worst part was having to leave because obviously they didn’t want us to leave. They were terrified for us to leave. I literally had to peel this lady off of my truck. I will never forget that for the rest of my life. She was pretty devastated that we were leaving. And I struggle with that still. It haunts me still to this day. It was so sad to see what war does because we are not brought up that way. We’re not, you know, we’re immune to that kind of stuff. We don’t get to see that stuff in Canada.

Witnessing the devastation of the local population, Ms. Fuchs speaks of how she and other comrades provided what they could to make things better.

Bettina Fuchs

Ms. Bettina Fuchs was born February 24, 1963 in Nanaimo, British Columbia. With the desire to obtain a stable career, Ms. Fuchs made the choice to join the military and accept a trade as MSE (Mobile Support Equipment) Operations where she held an occupation as a driver. With her 25 years of military service, Ms. Fuchs accepted deployments to the Gulf War region, Cambodia and Bosnia. During these deployments, Ms. Fuchs continued to carry out her responsibilities and always went the extra mile to provide aid and kindness to the local population. After a deployment to Bosnia, Ms. Fuchs was recognized for her humanitarian actions and received a Commendation award for her success. Being medically discharged from the military and now retired, Ms. Fuchs finds herself representing Team Canada for the Invictus Games, participating in the sport of archery. She presently resides in Peachland, British Columbia.