Difference between Day and Night

Sometimes in Sarajevo, it was like walking downtown Toronto. Everybody going about their business, buying bread, you know. To think that everybody was starving and was really in dire straights wasn’t what I saw. There was, people were well dressed. They knew there was a siege. There were parts of the city where we had some horrific incidents with mortar attacks on markets and things like that, but a lot of times everybody just kind of went about their day. But as the day wore on and dusk would come down, it’s, it was almost like a vampire movie. Everybody would disappear. The daytime was where everybody kind of survived and got their supplies and got what they needed for the night and then at night if you were on the street, you were free game. And that was kind of the surreal part of it, day was kind of weird and normal and at night was just horrific events of fighting and lots of attacks going on and the next day in the morning, we’d see the remnants of the nightly battles and the bodies. But you know at times, you know with so many civilians walking around, that’s when the snipers starting taking pot shots at people and that’s where as we as Canadians on patrols or checkpoints were inadvertently having to save people, or get involved but there was no way of finding out who was shooting who, there was nobody you could actually go and get. It was, they were just taking pot shots at civilians.

Mr. MacDonald explains the difference between day and night in the city where people go about their business in daylight and as dusk falls the changes and battles begin causing horrific destruction.

Ross MacDonald

Mr. Ross MacDonald was born April 4, 1967 in Peterborough, Ontario. His parents immigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada in 1960. After graduating from high school, Ross tried the college life, but because of his interest in the outdoors and strong involvement in sports he decided to join the army. At age 20, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces in Petawawa, Ontario joining 3 Royal Canadian Regiment. As part of his training, Mr. MacDonald travelled and lived in Germany for two years. In 1992, Mr. MacDonald joined 3 RCR November Company Group on a tour to Sarajevo to provide humanitarian aid and supplies to the besieged city. Because of his service, Mr. MacDonald was awarded the Commander-in-Chief Commendation. Due to medical release, Mr. MacDonald left the military, but continued to work with the soldiers needing support under the OSSIS program, a government position he holds today.