|
This time the precourse at Gardermoen went even faster. We, the veterans had full up to do
educating the new freshmen, and it just seemed like days until I was back in Saqi with the APC-Platoon again !
In the beginning the mood was tense though... A week earlier one of our soldiers shot two SLA
soldiers, using automatic rifles and handgrenades, tried to force their way into Norbatt. One of the SLA soldiers died immediately, the other one was badly wounded. Then our platoon got attacked in an ambush during
a road-clearence patrol down to Litany Wally, and one of our soldiers, Rune Opland from Mosjøen, got killed in the incident. Probably as an act of revenge, but unfortunately the perpetrator(s) were newer captured...
This resulted in lot of angry, tense soldiers moving around, so it took some time before conditions calmed down to normal again.
But when getting to meet the locals gain, it felt really good - almost as coming home !
Things hadn’t changed too much in the year I’d been away, and the routines were still the same. The leadership had changed though, and with a new battalion-commander, there was a lot of corridors in his eyes who
need to be broomed... This resulted in quite a lot of new regulations complicating our mission, and many hours was spent arguing against him too keep things as much the same as have been.
Shortly spoken, my second tour of duty wasn’t as good as the first, but anyhow, we managed to
have a lot of fun as well !
as you will notice, this contingent I took a lot more pictures, and instead of going home on leave, more “exotic” targets for travel was selected...
Unfortunately we lost one more man during this tour of duty. Captain Gunnar Bærheim died in an
traffic accident one late evening, but the soldiers stood together. No one talked about periods of depression, and there was no doctors telling us about late term psychological damages that could appear years later
in form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or anything like it.
We had to relate to the very strong comradeship that arose, possibly as an effect after incidents like these... We all had to trust and relate to
each other in any occurrence, something that created very strong bonds between us. A comradeship that I feel even today, though many of the men in my platoon I haven’t seen for years...
Also that damn new camp we had to build... There was a lot of prestige laying in that project,
getting our platoon out from the city and up on the mountain... Things like that irritated us, and although I felt very sad the day I dismissed from the service after finishing my period, deep inside I was
happy it was over...
Oh well... Enough talk, let’s look at the photos !!!
|
