A Different Type of Fear

Heroes Remember

A Different Type of Fear

Transcript

There was a night I was on shift and it was kind of funny because we were kind of a communications hub but there were certain responsibilities for the time that I was there, the German side was in charge of security outside the camp so if anything went on, if anybody had to kind of go out to deal with, they were in charge of it for that particular time. And I remember there was some machine gun fire outside our camp one night and they called me and the guy said, “I can hear some machine guns firing!” and I said, “I do too!” but that’s not… so he was calling me and it could be anything like that. There was a day I was going to ride out for security and they had put some anti-tank mines outside of our camp right so if there was anything like that on any given day and they tried to infiltrate our camp a few times, cut through the wires. We had some pretty significant fences so they didn’t really have a hope to do that with pretty basic tools but that was going on all the time so to leave it was, you know, we’d drive down the road and there would be blown up sea cans on the side of the road or what not. So there was a lot going on I guess on any given day. Interviewer: And being aware of all that when I ask about fear, was there a sense of fear for your own life at any point or did you feel quite safe within the camp? I wouldn’t say I felt safe. I think any lack of fear I probably had was due to being young and single. Like certainly I know we’d see Hercs going over the camp and firing off flares and everything and that’s where they got Hercs or the aircraft that would take us in and then we’d get painted from the ground or targeted and they would be firing flares so there was always that sense of danger. I know while I was there they got a rocket over our wall once and it hit on the German side so it was always, you know, that’s 150 metres away from where you sleep so you never knew, I guess. But I didn’t really have that conscious sense of fear and that was probably because I was young and not really worried about it at the time. Certainly now I know I wouldn’t be able to go having two kids and being older I wouldn’t be able to leave them and go because I would be so focused on losing myself for them.

Description

Mr. Lord expresses the sense of fear that prevails in the midst of operations within and outside the camp.

Justin Lord

Mr. Justin Lord was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island July 10, 1980. As a teenager he and his family moved to the town of Souris. Before attending university, Mr. Lord made the decision to join the Reserves. With encouragement from his cousin, he joined the 721 Communications regiment as a reservist and worked weekends while attending school. Mr. Lord completed basic training in Kingston, Ontario and experienced varied opportunities with the military. At age 23, he was given the opportunity to join the Royal 22nd Regiment Operation Athena Roto 1 with the regular force deploying to Afghanistan for a six month term in the Communication field holding rank of corporal. Returning home, Mr. Lord continued on as a reservist but his career path took a turn and in 2007 he sought employment with the Federal Government and now resides in Prince Edward Island with his family.

Meta Data