The People of Mogadishu

Mogadishu, as you flew in and you looked at the city it was, it was fairly well demolished. Virtually every building had, if it didn’t have just pock marks in it from bullet holes or recoilless rifle rounds half the, half the building would be gone The majority of walls that were still up they had, people had cemented glass across the top to keep people from crawling over top of it. There was, there was virtually no infrastructure left in the city. When you drove down the street, if you didn’t have something securely tied to the outside of your vehicle it was gone. It was taken right off, water cans, anything of any value. It was a, we knew as soon as we came in there this was a country that was without anything. They hadn’t, they didn’t even have the basic essentials of life. You have to treat it with a lot of understanding. You have to look at it as a life experience and knowing that you’re there, the reason that you’re there is to try to help these people. In some cases you’re dealing with people that did not want your help and just wanted what they could take from you. So you had to be very careful, you were on guard all the time, you were vigilant all the time you were in this, in the country.

Mr. Campbell describes the sites he witnessed in Mogadishu and having to be on guard at all times.

Robert Campbell

Mr. Campbell was born in May of 1956 in Elmsdale, Prince Edward Island. At age 10, his father decided to move their family to the farming community of Alberton. With the desire for something better to do in life, Mr. Campbell left the farm life and joined the military. In April 1975 he joined the Canadian Forces and trained in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. He then travelled to Borden, Ontario to complete his technician training which resulted in a military career as a mechanic. In 1992, Mr. Campbell joined the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Regiment and stayed with that unit for four years. During this time, he served in Germany and Holland. Mr. Campbell was later posted to Petawawa and became a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, with deployments in the Golan Heights and Somalia. During his mission in Somalia, Mr. Campbell was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. In 1997, he returned to Petawawa, Ontario and was medically discharged from the Canadian Forces. Mr. Campbell and his family moved back to Prince Edward Island where he worked with Veterans Affairs Canada.