Difficulty as a Combat Soldier

Heroes Remember

Difficulty as a Combat Soldier

Transcript

My personal view and I know a lot of other guys share it is, don’t ask a combat soldier to be a peacekeeper. Like, there was a time and place like Cyprus there, the war ended in so many years and then they moved in to buffer the area. Well we were right, Yugoslavia was totally different, the civil war was ongoing. Our mandate and our rules of engagement didn’t allow us to do anything. You’d drive down the road, seen someone getting shot right in front of you. All you could do is keep driving and just report it. You couldn’t do nothing. You know, you could protect yourself only if they were shooting at you, directly, and as artillery and that is indirect so you have no proof of really who it was or so, we just had to do our nightly drills and run for cover and come out when it was over, and assess all the surroundings around us and make sure everybody was okay, and that was ongoing every night, everyday. There was an incident there we were coming back at the end of the day from the airport. We just dropped off the convoy and we were coming back and our vehicle actually got hit in sniper alley just outside the airport with a round, with a, right off the turret of the crew commander and we knew where it roughly came from, but due to our rules of engagement we couldn’t do nothing. We more or less just had to get out of there, and get back and report it as we were driving away.

Description

Mr. Wadman provides his view on the difficulty of being a peacekeeper when initially trained as a combat soldier.

Ed Wadman

Mr. Wadman was born January 5, 1967 in Cold Lake, Alberta. His father served in the air force so growing up in a military family was a big part of Mr. Wadman’s childhood. Unlike his father, Mr. Wadman decided to join the army realizing the security in life it could bring. Mr. Wadman that he was posted to Germany in 1988. He was than sent to Sarajevo for a six-month tour. As a member of 3RCR November Company Group, Operation Harmony, holding rank of Corporal, Mr. Wadman was awarded The Commander-In-Chief unit commendation award for his unique service within the besieged city of Sarajevo. Mr. Wadman’s military career also involved tours including Kuwait, Bosnia and Africa. After his retirement from the military, Mr. Wadman began teaching driving courses to military personnel.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:44
Person Interviewed:: Ed Wadman
War, Conflict or Mission:: Canadian Armed Forces
Location/Theatre:: Sarajevo
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Royal Canadian Regiment
Rank:: Corporal

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Difficulty as a Combat Soldier

Heroes Remember