A Story...

"Chris... Chris...? Y'alrite mate...?" My radio was speaking to me, it was Yam Yam. He was sounding a bit distressed... 'yes, I think so...' my mind was talking to itself, I was bruised, everything was upside down, no visible blood tho... I'm... I seem okay. I found the mike, "yeah..." I groaned into it, "I think so..."

Seconds later Yam Yam opens the door and sticks his head in... I look up at him... "fuckin el, Chris, you fuckin idiot, whar happened...?" (You have to forgive him, Brummie you see) Well, as it happened I had rolled my class II truck with about what was $2m of UN equipment on the back... generators, now worth significantly less... as was the $250k truck now upside down... We had to go though, he new it, I new it, the place was dangerous. The Serbs liked shooting at us in this area, but we were not special, they liked shooting at everyone.

Actually being shot at was part of the 'turning the truck over' thingy... kinda...

Yam Yam was my convoy partner out of Tuzla Airbase during the Yugoslavian crisis, we would drive in and out of Bosnia, usually to Zagreb via Split and the coast road. Pre-war, the trip would take 3-4 hours by highway; sometimes it took Yam Yam and I 36 hours to get to Zagreb. Different roads, different routes, different road blocks but we got through every time... well except the truck thingy this time... Beer would help the road blocks become access routes... sometimes we would see tracer bullets flying overhead, you could not hear the shots, they were too far away but you could see the red tracers. One time a mortar landed behind a grassy knoll on my left, and the truck driver in front of me panicked running round checking his vehicle, well you would wouldn't you, if you were driving a fuel truck.

Not only was Yam Yam my convoy partner, but we also lived in the same house in Tuzla, we both enjoyed intermittent heat, no telephone, water sometimes and no electricity... (actually we had 'found' this UN generator, just sitting there (in storage), it gave us 4Kw of power) and when we did have electric there was no TV, but we did have a video recorder... but no videos. I lie... we had one season of Blackadder... we watched it lots... And lots...

I had met Yam Yam 18 months earlier, both of us landed in Zagreb around the same time late 1993, in the middle of a snowstorm. Our induction and pre sector deployment had us in what was (pre-war) a beautiful spa hotel an hour outside of Zagreb city. Indoor pools, outdoor pools, hot tubs etc. The indoor pools were great, the outdoor pools were cold, being buried in snow does that. One of my first memories of Yam Yam was daring each other to swim a length of the outdoor pool... cold - I think my bits have still not recovered... that is my excuse anyway... What...? I was 25, I could do dumb stuff as a 25 year old.

Oh, the truck turny over thingy. The place was called Banovici, (unsurprisingly, still is) and it was a contested area, and the only route in and out of Tuzla. To make the road safer for UN staff/civilians a Pakistani battalion was tasked with escorting UN vehicles through the area. Yes, yes, sounds good. No no no! Not good, not good at all. We would line up behind these big armoured vehicles and get escorted through. Escorted at 10km/h... We are not in 2" thick steel armoured vehicles, we are in these civilian trucks, built for fuel efficiency - thin. And we had gone from a fast moving target (we did not hang around waiting to be shot at...) to a very slow moving target...

Yes we had flak jackets on (designed to keep the body parts together if hit, saving lives... not so much) and helmets... I should be safe if a 50cal slug hits my helmet at 800mph... maybe? but it was a pretty blue colour. 

We did not like the convoy idea... no, not at all. To avoid the convoy we would go through in the middle of the night, lights off and hauling... fast... no helmets.

I had done the trip a week earlier, me and some Mexican guy. Middle of the night, lights off, hauling... Light machine gun fire is a scary noise when it is targeted at you. They got one of my tires... I had nine others, we were okay, but I'm not stopping to change the tyre...

So this time I was nervous... we had left early but daylight was coming, the hill was steep and fast and at the closest point you had to slow right down to take a very sharp left hand turn. My truck was loaded heavy... big, big generators... too fast. I don't remember much, I remember tilting and falling towards the passenger window, it exploding inwards before I hit it, but not much else until I hear Yam Yam "Chris... Chris...? Y'alrite mate...?" 

I was okay, bruised, in shock. We went back to base, came back with a contingent of Swedish Engineers, got shot at again, dove into their armoured vehicle and back to camp. I saw Susan, she took the piss (fortunately I was still in shock...) Interesting day.

But you see, things sometimes turn out good. I wasn't scheduled to return to Tuzla, I was on leave heading back to the UK for a couple of weeks. The key point... I was leaving Susan in Tuzla. We had only just met and she would be gone by the time I returned. I would never see her again... But I couldn't go, could I? My transport was upside down in a ditch being used for target practice.

Susan and I got together and 19 years later have a fantastic life in Big White, kids, dogs, skiing... all is good.

Mostly...

I found out today.
RIP Yam Yam.