Description
Collection of interviews with veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces recounting their experience of military service in Somalia.
Transcript
(Rob Campbell)
Canada’s role at that time was to try to make progress towards getting the clans together because the clans, it was made up of fifteen different clans in Somalia, each one of them professing that they were the leaders of their country.
(David McCardle)
We were briefed pretty well and we kind of expected with the heat, the dust, the disease, the refugee camps. The way they treated people, the way the clans treated people, that, that came as a bit of a shock.
(Mark Rutherford)
I saw things that no Canadian was ever trained to see. The shame of it is, like, we had our rations, we had our food and we were fed well on the ship and then you go driving and I mean, you’re seeing ten, eleven year old kids that, their stomach, you could touch their belly button and you’d be touching their back bone. And there was some not pretty things. Yes, we were trained to be in the army and yes, we’d seen the war movies and everything else but it’s a lot different than a video game when you’re seeing it in real life.
(David McCardle)
We accomplished a lot - infrastructure, police, fire, hospitals, churches, schools, all that was accomplished by us as well as providing some stability to the area. People get fed and get the relief efforts.
(Rob Campbell)
In providing aid to the civilians we would take convoys of food and, that were supplied by some of the world health organizations, and we guarded that, that material from the time it landed at the dock it was looked after and until it was given out to the people of the, of the certain villages. We would usually have to stay around until it was distributed to the local villagers because there would be clans people come in and take it right out of their hands or break into the storage area and take that away and the villagers would be left with nothing.
(Mark Rutherford)
But I remember working with a dentist, standing there with the dentist of the ship for almost 12, 14 hours where he was giving free exams to Somalian children, and we were giving out toothbrushes and toothpaste and we were giving out some food and... The things that we did from the ship to the shore were some pretty amazing things.
(Rob Campbell)
We gave a couple of ration packs to this young man one day. He was their translator in the village and the ration packs, we always frown on the hard rations because they’re boil-in-the-bag, kind of bland, tasteless food. Anyway, he looked at them and he said, this will feed my family for four days, or something like this and we just take it for granted because each ration pack, or hard ration, was one meal for a Canadian.
(David McCardle)
Without going too indepth but I wish the incidents that happened in March that it never happened. We would be a different Canadian Forces and a different army today if they didn’t happen, but they did so we have to deal with it. Somebody went too far and it should never have went that far, and without blaming anybody or any individuals or any person, any that... It was allowed to happen and I really don’t know why, to tell you the truth.
(Mark Rutherford)
There was a larger group that did an awful lot of good that fails to get mentioned. We did a lot of good in Somalia. It was one of my most rewarding times with the military, but it’s also one of my most eye opening times with the military to see the things that I saw as well.