Army PicturesHQ of Parachute Company,

3rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment Battle GroupRotation Eight, Operation PalladiumTask Force Bosnia-Hercegovina

Look both ways before you cut in front of someone! The other guy might be a tank.

Luckily, no one was hurt in this accident, the car driver got a good scare though.

You have to watch the locals.

A full “boat” carries 10 guys. A convoy of our vehicles.

Our ambulances, a Military Policeman, and paratrooper.

Some merit more attention than others.

At left is a disabled booby-trap: a sawed-off rifle aimed to fire at you if you open a door.

Note: boobies good, booby traps - bad.

Right: this cross-bow would be used by Bosnians to quietly take out enemy sentries in war time.

This is a mass grave site inside a mine shaft in the Malovans area. An unknown number of Bosnian Serbs are buried there. The local villages are empty. The nearest town was 95% Bosnian Serb before the war. It’s now 90% Croat. Even the mayor is living in a refugee’s house. This is how ethnic-cleansing is re-enforced, you take “your” refugees and move them into “their” refugees’ homes and then get them jobs. Simply threaten their jobs if the other side’s refugees wish to return, and you’ll get the violent opposition to the International Community that you need to carry on with your criminal activity.

This is a Dutch “Puma” helicopter picking up a 3,000 pound Canadian LG-1 gun for air-mobile operations. We did this as a show of force to the local forces here to prove that we have a higher level of military capability than they do and that we can react quickly and bring firepower to bear anywhere we want it.

This is an SFOR Czech “Hip” helicopter flying over our satellite camp in the previously ethnically-mixed town of Glamoc. The camp was a lumber mill and the town’s biggest employer. In the entire town there are probably only a few houses left with windows. Glamoc was on one of the front lines during the war and was hit exceptionally hard. It continues to be a troubled area. Most recently there have been ethnic strife-related bombings and drive-by shootings.

Recently, we took control of several local weapon storage sites. This one is a war-time, fall-out shelter/hospital dug into a mountain. This place has millions of bullets, plus anti-tank guns, rockets, and grenades. On the left are 1500 American M-16s in crates, on the right is the museum of weapons: Uzis, AK-47s, M-16s, H&Ks, Burp Guns, sniper rifles, U.S. M-60 and captured German machine guns. I’m holding an old favourite, a silenced, drum-fed, paratrooper Tommy gun.

The End