Witnessing the Aftermath of Hostility

We were lucky. We missed the big, the murder that they had there. It was the aftermath. There were still bodies on the side of the road. The smell was terrible. Everywhere you went you had that smell and it stay with you, stay with you forever. What was touching was children. Children with no parents, just, and I'm not talking, you know, kids 16, 17 years old. I'm talking five, six years old, babies really. Walking on the side of the road, it seems going nowhere and asking us for food. We give them as much as we could but was it enough? Not really. It was sad.

Mr. Desmeules describes the sight of dead bodies and the many starving children in the aftermath of war.

Mike Desmeules

Mr. Desmeules was born in 1950 in Jean Pierre, Quebec. With little work in his hometown community, Mr. Desmeules decided to join the armed forces, considering it as an opportunity to travel. At 18 years of age Mr. Desmeules initially joined the Navy taking up the service occupation of administrative clerk. With this occupation being very generic to all branches of service, Mr. Desmeules later joined with the army and in 1975 accepted an opportunity to travel to Egypt with the Signal Regiment. In 1995, Mr. Desmeules accepted a posting to Rwanda, again in the administrative field of occupation. Upon return to Canada, Mr. Desmeules made the switch back to navy service and retired when 30 years of service was achieved. Mr. Desmeules and his family took up residence in Prince Edward Island, Canada.