Sights Seen

I got to see lots of stuff, there's no doubt about that. Interviewer: Tell me a bit about that, the stuff you saw. Well seeing lots of different graves everyday. I mean you're pretty familiar with the area that you work in its important so you see. That was a part that you know, that every time you see a fresh dug grave you say to yourself you know"ok guys," you know, it kinda, if you try to get complacent for a week or two you, sit back and say "hey I'm in, I'm in an area where there's, you know where someone, we can get hurt" so you know. You see that. I don't know why I watched that so much, but I drive by and there's lots of grave yards, you know along the way, people... I realize that we're in the greatest country that there ever is, there's no doubt about that, Canada is the greatest there's no ands, ifs or buts about it. To look at what, what the people have to go through in that country, it's a beautiful country but how they're torn apart. How, how two different nationalities that share the same country to hate each other so much, is amazing. It's a hate that you can't describe. Because you could do something to me or you can hate someone, but to see it in their eyes you see so much darkness in their eyes, like it's a, it's an eerie feeling. Cause like, as military police officers, we set up security perimeters for them to meet and talk and stuff like that and they bring their soldiers, and the other leader brings his and you just see them. were not there they would just, I know in my mind they would just kill each other right? You could see it. I've never experienced that myself, ever, like that I felt that much that I wanted to kill somebody you know what I'm saying. But this group of organization had it. And we left that and I'll never forget what my buddy said, "that was pretty eerie eh?", I said "yeah man that was pretty tense". I didn't know what was gonna happen because they're on one side and they're on the other and trying to you know make some sort of agreement, you know they're trying to work through this. And we did some of that stuff. So, to see that, at that extreme, to me, and I don't want anybody to take it the wrong way, it was amazing, cause now you could see that if we ever to war what kind of face your going to.. Cause you know someone's going to, they were losing soldiers everyday. I mean there was people getting killed every day in crossfire's, attacks. We knew that was going on, they weren't attacking us as such, but they were attacking each other, with us in the middle, you know and some people would get hurt. But to see that, is an expression that I will never forget I guess, in my eyes. It's just like wow! And again, as a military police officer with so much free movement, I got a chance to see that and that's the thing.

Mr. Campbell talks about seeing the Yugoslavian soldiers and the mean look they always had in their eye. He says it was quite an eerie sight.

Perry Campbell

Mr. Campbell was born on August 19, 1963, in Goose Bay, Labrador. After moving to a fishing village in Newfoundland at the age of 13, Mr. Campbell tried to make it as a fisherman but unfortunately suffered from sea sickness and went back to Labrador. One day he saw a Canadian Forces ad that stated, "No life like it." Captivated by this, Mr. Campbell applied and within four months he began travelling across Canada for his basic training. After three years as an infantryman, Mr. Campbell decided to become a military police officer. As a military police officer Mr. Campbell was always in the face of danger, but none so great as when he was called upon for duty in the former Yugoslavia with the UN Peacekeeping unit in the early 1990s. Here he was a master corporal, heading up the main investigative body for all armies, managing his own shift, and being responsible for the Jordanian Armies. Mr. Campbell spent nine years as a military police officer, and if called upon today for service would not hesitate to answer the call of duty for his country and undying dedication to the Canadian Forces. Mr. Campbell has spent the last ten years in Yellowknife with his wife and children.