The Pope’s Visit and our ‘Field of Dreams’

By MCpl R.J. Rousseaux

14 Jul 2003

                 Once upon a time, his Holiness, Pope John Paul II, decided to visit BANJA LUKA.  He arrived at 0940 hrs 22 June 2003 by plane at the airport, where he was picked up by his ‘pope-mobile’ and brought to the mass site where he would speak to the masses.  After that he spent a few hours at the Bishop’s residence, and then around 1900 hrs he was back in his vehicle and moving back to the airport for his trip home.  What most people didn’t see, was all the security and background work that goes on for a visit such as this.  For instance, did you know that there were thousands of Republika SRPSKA Police tasked with his security along the route?  All these police were inside an imaginary box which measured approximately 15 X 5 kilometres.  This box became affectionately known as the ‘red box’.  Let’s just say that thinking ‘outside the box’ was a mandatory part of this operation.  An impressive collection of SFOR troops and equipment was assembled in and around BANJA LUKA to assist the Local Police, should it be necessary.  There were Caribinieri from Italy on standby, a coy from the Portuguese Battalion and a coy from the Polish Battalion who each had their own areas of responsibility ‘outside the box’.  To the north was B Sqn from the 9/12th Lancers, and in the air were some Apaches from the United States, some Canadian Griffons. 

                On top of all that, there was a C Squadron from the Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians).  That’s where I come in.  Our squadron was tasked as part of the 1st Highlander’s BG with keeping an eye on the Pope from when he landed in his plane, all along the Papal route, during the mass, back along the route, and until the time his plane took off again.  The hitch was that we had to get ‘eyes on’, without entering the red box.  A quick map study told us that there were not that many places around Banja Luka where we could possibly site the OPs, (Observation Posts).  After a helicopter recce courtesy of the Slovenian Air Force and one Mi-17 HIP, a couple of these spots were ruled out.  The helicopter recce was a good thing, considering that some of the proposed places would have required route clearing by the Niyala and 13 Fdn Sqn Engrs, which would have taken even more time, and these locations would have been proven to be no good.  The air recce proved to be very worthwhile. 

                After the helicopter recce, each patrol commander made his way to their prospective OPs.  In no time, we had determined that we were able to see the route for almost 95% of the time, and where we could not get ‘eyes on’, there would be air assets that should be able to keep contact.  Once the OPs are set up, the rest is just a waiting game.   My C/S was 33B, and our OP was located in the middle of a wheat and corn field, on an east/west route.  While setting up our OP in this wheat field, we had to keep our 3 goals in mind: we had to be able to see into our NAI (Named Area of Interest); we had to be able to maintain observation on a Pizza Place; and in order to maintain morale, we wanted to get a good view of some of the local populace.  The last two were, to be honest, patrol imposed NAIs!  We managed to get 70% observation into our NAI, 100% on the Pizza Place, but 0% of the local population.  The patrol commander had a possible mutiny on his hands.                During our recce of the area, we were wondering if we had a spy on board with us.  The Interpreter coated the side of our vehicle with some sort of white powder.  She claimed that it was foot powder that had burst open from her kit bag, but we figured that she had marked us for some reason.  We had to keep our eye on her…  Once in place and all was up and running, it was time for coffee.  MCpl Terry Zahorodney stepped up to the proverbial plate, grabbed a cleaning rag, and proceeded to make coffee by fabricating a large tea-bag affair, but with coffee in it.  The end result?  It tasted like a used weapon’s cleaning rag had been dumped into a pot of coffee grounds.  The smell was overpowering, and the local farmer ended up using it for insectiside.  Come to think of it, we never saw another mosquito for hours. 

                WO Darryl Campbell came to the rescue and with his innumerable years of Recce experience, and brewed up another batch of coffee.  The grasshoppers liked this batch so we all gave it a try and it turned out to be palatable.  While this was going on, our surveillance operator picked up some movement to our rear.  Our high-tech equipment and our excellent surveillance operator Tpr Jamie Moores picked up something that seemed to be trying to sneak up on us.  The sentry was quickly sent our and he proceeded to stalk the intruder.  It was interesting to watch the events unfold on our thermal camera.  As our sentry approached, the target remained silent…  The sentry got closer and at the last possible second, the cat ran away into the cornfield.  Our sentry had just turned around to face us and declare victory, when the cat re-appeared a mere three feet behind him.  Cat – 1,  Sentry – 0. 

                The next morning, it was very, very, very warm.  Our sentries took turns baking in the sun.  When Tpr Jeff Sherman started claiming that the bees were telling him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of the field, we knew it was getting hot out and that he needed to be replaced.  He still maintains that ‘if he builds it, they will come’.  Cpl Mark Martin gave our interpreter the nickname, ‘Starvin Marvin’.  He was rather picky with his hard ration pack.  But I digress. 

                While all this was going on, we maintained watch on the principle route and waited for the Pope to arrive.  We did not actually get to see his vehicle, because our task was to look north, but we heard all the radio traffic generated by our other six OPs.  As a squadron, we had ‘eyes on’ the Pope for approximately 95% of his route.  When the end of the operation was called, we had to leave our little field of dreams, and head back to the metal factory for a well-deserved break, but not before we managed to eat eight large pizzas from our second area of interest.  The bottom line is, when it comes to the Pope’s security or large operations such as this one was, sometimes its difficult to see the big picture.  But as long as we all focus on our particular areas of responsibility, then we will get pizza.    The end.