Historica Dominion Institute, The Memory Project Speakers’ Bureau Educational DVD
Sergeant (Retired) Phyllis Howald, CD, United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Croatia and Bosnia, 1992-1993
My name is Phyllis Howald and I was born in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.
Reasons for Joining the Military
When I got out of high school, I had the opportunity to go down to California to live and work and the more I thought about it, the more I did not want to go down to be an American. I was very very proud to be a Canadian and I thought the best way to show it was to join the military. And that is why I joined the military.
Enlistment
I enlisted in Kitchener itself. They have a recruit centre there and I was hired as a Class C, YTEP, which stands for Youth Temporary Employment Program. It was a one year contract. After that, it was extended to sign onto the Reg [Regular] force and there I signed in Peterborough. And I spent my first 6.5 years in Trenton, Ontario.
Basic Training
In 1983, they sent me down to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, which was basic training. From there, I got out of Cornwallis in October, they sent me for OJT, ‘on the job training’, to Summerside, PEI [Prince Edward Island] and I stayed there until the Christmas break which I went home. In January, actually, it was January 9th, I went to CFB [Canadian Forces Base] Borden and I started my trades training. And my trade was as a finance clerk. From there, after my training, I went back to my base, which was, I got posted to CFB Trenton.
Pay Master Corporal, Atlantic Militia Area
After I was posted to Trenton, I was posted to CFB Surewater, which I only stayed a little bit, but I was moved over to, at that time it was called Atlantic Militia Area, which is now, the headquarters handles all of the eastern coast and I was picked by my supervisors to actually go over there as Pay Master Corporal. Actually, it was funny because two weeks before that, I had a dream that I was going over and it came true. I was very very scared from what I had heard on the TV and Gagetown was going with the 2RCR [2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment] from Gagetown and they wanted me immediately to go over to Gagetown to start training for it. So I was a little worried, yes.
Deployment to Croatia and Bosnia
The overall deployment, first of all, we spent a little bit of time in Croatia, helping the PPCLI [Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry], I don’t know which one it was. There was things happening in places called Pakrac [Croatia] and places like that where they needed both Battalions to settle down what was going there. After that, we did move on to Bosnia. In Vesoko [Bosnia-Herzegovina], we opened up that camp right there. It was very scary because we did not know, especially in Bosnia, whether or not we would be accepted where we actually had set up our camp. I know that the local people still had their prejudices against each of the people that were involved. We’re talking about Muslims, we’re talking about Serbs and we’re talking about Croats. Those were the three people. But we did employ them, thank God. They were our bakers and they were excellent.
What my job over there was, as pay clerk, was to go from, the companies were spread out all over Bosnia and all over Croatia when we were there, my job was to go twice a month to go to their camps and pay them in cash, in Deutschmarks, for whatever it is that they needed. Whether it was in the canteens that were set up in each of the camps or to buy gifts if they got out. But it was very, it was very unnerving because we walked around all the time in flak jackets, our UN helmets and loaded weapons. So it was a very serious time. In our camps, we had people throwing, we don’t know who, throwing grenades into the back of our camps. This was not a picnic. If you’re not scared going over there, either you don’t belong in the military or you’re lying, because it is scary.
The only information I had was from the TV, which they showed the people in the camps that were emancipated because of starvation and stuff like this. We did know that ethnic cleansing was going on, at both places, both on Croatia and in Bosnia. But it was, we saw it mostly in Bosnia. And that is something that you don’t want to run into. Going to Vesoko, which was northwest of Sarajevo, we had to travel through what was called sniper alley. What we had were on the left hand side was houses on the mountains and then we had a mountain on the other side of us. So they were shooting from the houses across at our vehicles. If they really wanted to hit us, they could have hit us. It was more like move out of the way, we don’t like to hear move. So we did.
The Challenges of being in the United Nations as a Canadian Peacekeeper
Most of the time when they were shooting at us, we didn’t think they were shooting at us. They were just shooting to say, we don’t like the UN here. There was one part when we were going through the town, going to base, where there was no more than a 14 year old and he had a rocket launcher on his shoulder, pointing at our vehicle as we were going back. And being Canadians, we all held our breath and didn’t do anything. We could have shot him but Canadians don’t shoot kids. And once we got past where he would have been able to, to do any harm, we all let out a big breath of air because we were safe then. We were not out to really, to shoot anybody and it’s just not in us to shoot a kid. So these are real things, these are real dangers we’re talking about.
Conditions of Daily Life in the Balkans
The whole Balkans there are very very mountainous and they, a lot of times in traveling through the mountains, we would find like somebody that was stranded or something and we would help them because we were traveling around. But what we did is in our little, it was a box on the back of a truck and that’s what we worked out of. It was very very cold there. It was so cold that we had heaters that were run by diesel and the diesel froze. I mean, this is not camping. The showering facilities, we didn’t have a lot, a lot of time anything. So daily life was pretty tough.
Peacekeeper vs. Peacemaker
I was very proud of what we were doing there. I don’t believe that Canada knew exactly what we were doing there. What we were doing and I wrote this to a grade three who had actually sent a letter and I wrote back, a peacekeeper is somebody who stands between two people who want to fight. Okay. A peacemaker is if two people are fighting and we have to actually pull them apart. And that’s what we did. We stood between them, most of the Croats and the Serbs were against the Muslims and that’s why we went into a Muslim village to set up our shop. So.
Public Impressions
We were totally totally totally stressed out. The only chances that we had to back up and regroup out of the area was one time and usually it’s more than that. But we were also allowed our two week holiday. And that is all we had. The rest of the time was very very stressful, just by what was happening around us. A lot of times at nighttime, we would go up on top of our roof and watch whoever it was bombing somebody else. You could actually see the shells traveling through the night. You could hear gunfire, you could see places burning. It was, like I said, it was very scary but when I came back to Canada and I got a little bit settled, I felt that we did a very very good job. Unfortunately the Canadian population did not because it was in the middle of the helicopters that they bought and didn’t fit on the ships. And also Somalia was going on at the same time. So we were tainted the same as everybody else, as whatever the news wanted to say, that’s the way the people felt. And we did not come back to a very good welcome at all. But I felt we did a great job.
Becoming Peacemakers
In my personal opinion, in 1992, we stopped being peacekeepers and started being peacemakers. We had the PPCLI in Croatia, we had the [Operation]MedakPocket [implementation of a ceasefire between the Croatian Army Troops and Serbian irregular forces] in Croatia there, we had the 2RCR in Bosnia and yes, we were definitely underequipped and we had the group out in Somalia. We were all there all at the same time, not peacekeeping, peacemaking. And yes, there was not enough equipment to go around for everybody.
The Challenges of Being a Woman in the Military
I had a three strike rule. The three strike rule is being in the Battalion, being female, being a support as being a finance clerk and being air force. So what I had to do was I had to prove myself to the Battalion, the whole Battalion, that I was not just a wimp and they dragged me there. I only weighed 110 pounds there. I pulled a full sack and threw my full duffel bag on top of that and I carried that, to prove that, yes, you do not have to take care of me.
Remembrance Day
I would like to see the celebration for all veterans, including the Second World War, including I call the middle people, you know, because we have the Second World War and the Korean Veterans and we have the Afghan people. Everybody in between are forgotten. And I think that is very wrong.
The Importance of Remembrance
I put my uniform on every day and I was proud every day I put that uniform on. Remembrance should be a remembrance of the people who gave their lives to be Canadian and try and keep the Canadian way of life. I think that’s extremely important. My husband was in the military for a short time, my son is now in the military and he says the same thing – he is proud every single day he puts that uniform on. And that’s what the Canadian people should remember, if they want to join the military, that they should be proud of what they’re doing.
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