Connecting Family by Phone

I have a really feel good story from there amongst all the bad stuff that was there. When you get there, there’s young Cambodian men and they have mopeds. So they hang out in front of our camp and they would want you to pick somebody and they would look after you. So if you needed to go to town or if you needed to go anywhere, they’re always hanging outside the camp waiting for you and they take you into town on the moped. So I got to know my moped driver quite well and he had a younger brother and a family, a wife and two kids. And he had told me that their older brother got taken away in the refugee program when the Americans came in in 1976, 74 - 76 somewhere around there. And then we’re in the 90’s now, right? Sorry 1990, 92, 93, 92/93 so anyway he told me so this is almost twenty years later that he had a brother. So I said, “What’s your brother’s name?” And he told me so I got a hold of, through my chain of command, the American Consulate and we found his brother in California. So my driver used to take me down to the business centre to use the phone all the time so I could phone my mom. So I said, “Paul, please take me down to the business centre I need to use the phone,” so he figured I was just phoning my mom. So I phoned his brother and his brother had thought his two brothers were dead. He didn’t know they were still alive. So I was on the phone and I said, “Paul, come here,” he thought he was going to talk to my mom on the phone and say hi. It was his brother on the phone. Oh my gosh, you should have seen, I get goose bumps still. He was, the family was so ecstatic that we had reunited them again and so for the rest of the time I was there they sent me mail because the mail system was not very good there at all. They wouldn’t even had gotten mail if they had sent stuff through the mail so they sent it through me and I gave it to them and then they ended up being able to fly over after I had left and seen them. And they even bought me a plane ticket. The ones that live in California to go. And I said, “Please, no, can you get your money back?” He said, “Yah?” I said, “Please take that money and give it to Paul and his family in Cambodia that you paid for my plane ticket please!” And so he did. I still keep in contact with him. And they are all doing well. One brother is in California now. The other brother wanted to stay in Cambodia because he is part of the Cambodian police force there and he loves his country and his job. So that was something really good that came out of it.

With all the bad things in war, Ms. Fuchs shares a story of her experiences where she was able to help out a family during her time on duty.

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.