Ambushed
Heroes Remember
Ambushed
Transcript
We were looking for someone or we were looking for the
whereabouts of this one person. All of a sudden we got ambushed
on this low ground, there was a sharp bend and, and our jeep was
surrounded by a number, a number of vehicles and this fellow
came out of his vehicle, came to me and pointed his pistol right
against my, my, my forehead and he starts speaking to me and my
first reaction I grabbed the pistol and put it away. He put it
back in there and I grabbed it, once more I grabbed it. Second
time, the third time I went to grab it somebody else grabbed my
hand before I could. He took the pistol away, and cocked it,
and he said, "See this bullet? Your name's on it." Then he put
it back there. I said, "Okay what the hell you want to talk
about?" And his name is Kahmalsali, that was on 16 of December
1985 actually. Oh, probably about two p.m. somewhere around
there. Anyway, I celebrate Kahmalsali Day now on the 16th of
December. And basically he said, "Well, you're coming with me
today." He said, "We don't want you nosing around here." Now
I'm not sure what was going on and we were actually trying to
find Kahmalsali. We found him alright, or he found us rather.
So we were taken away until the following day. Oh, nothing, you
know, they treat us real good, taken away from there to a
courtyard somewhere and he just kept us there overnight, ‘til
the next day. Now, whatever was going on around there, I have
no idea. Well, they took us hostage, we were well treated. We
were given wine. We had food, a place to sleep and the next day
he said, "Okay, good bye." I know, totally out of, but none of
us got harmed and he said, "A good thing you didn't get me mad
this time when you pulled that pistol away." And Kahmalsali,
you see, had been shot by the UN, actually, three years prior
to that he was trying to sneak in somewhere and he had lost his
voice. He had to speak, he had a hole in his neck. In order to
speak he had to put a finger on that, in the hole in, in order
to speak, and this guy was, could speak about five different
languages. Spoke Arabic, Hebrew, French, real good, English,
real good and couple of other languages as far as I'd been told,
anyways. But he was a paid killer by the Israeli government,
underground killer and he was working, he was, he was Arabic,
his background was Lebanese, but that was, was quite something.
Description
Mr. Grossinger describes being ambushed in Lebanon.
Red Grossinger
Red Grossinger was born in 1940 and lived most his life in Quebec. As eldest of 13 children, he felt a responsibility to find a job and help support the family. In 1957 he joined the local militia to help the family income. He then joined the Regular Forces in 1959 and completed tours in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus where he had some very close calls.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 03:05
- Person Interviewed:
- Red Grossinger
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Canadian Armed Forces
- Location/Theatre:
- Lebanon
- Branch:
- Army
- Rank:
- Major
- Occupation:
- Armoured Troop
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