Hundreds of Irish soldiers have recently spent nearly five testing months in the volatile central African nation of Chad. Eoin Butler met a few of them as they arrived home on leave
INCOMING MORTAR rounds, 13-hour working days and temperatures of up to of 55 degrees. It wasn't all fun and games for the soldiers of the Western Brigade last year, as they grappled with the task of establishing an Irish peacekeeping presence in Chad. The central African country has among the world's worst rates of life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income and corruption. To further complicate matters, eastern Chad currently hosts 285,000 refugees from the Darfur conflict (raging just over the border in Sudan) as well as 180,000 Chadians displaced by clashes between government and rebel forces.
In May this year, 450 Irish troops were deployed to eastern Chad as part of the Eufor mission to the region. Their job was to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Here, in their own words, three Irish soldiers describe how they got to grips with the challenges they faced and how they coped in the testing conditions.
Battery sergeant Gary Madden (43)
"I went into Chad as part of the initial injection force. Our job was to construct a base that would house the main body of 400 Irish soldiers coming after us. I suppose it was a fairly daunting task, if you were to sit back and think about it.
"Fortunately, the Army Rangers were already in the area when we arrived, so we had a secure area to set up camp for the first couple of days. Wells had been dug and the Rangers had set up a makeshift shower. You could probably sneak in there once a day, if you were lucky. Each of us had our own two-man tent. As well as sleeping in it, you also used this to store your gear in. The tents got very hot during the day. If you had any electronic equipment, you had to be very careful. We had pack rations and bottled water.
"That was it. I don't know if you've seen any pictures of Chad, but it's not the most lushly forrested place on God's green earth. There's no foliage on any of the trees during the dry season. So there was no cover from the sun. The heat was violent, 55 degrees in the middle of the day. For the first week or so, you were constantly drenched with sweat. But at night temperatures often dropped below freezing.
"Basically, we had what you would call a brown field site. Everything that you would expect to see in a modern urban development had yet to be put in place. It was a long working day. We'd start at 5am and work until it got dark at 6pm. If you could, you'd try and get out of the sun at the hottest part of the day. But a lot of the time that wasn't possible. Any break time you got was just about getting food into you, getting water into you and preparing for the next few hours' work. If you had half an hour to rest you'd probably try and find a small bit of shade and catch 40 winks.
"There was no opportunity for recreation in those first few weeks, none whatsoever. There was a job to be done every single day. That was just how it was. Everybody knew what they were getting in to. You knew what was expected of you and you knew what the level of comfort would be. We were lucky, however, in that the people we had were not only very skilled, but also very dedicated and hardworking. There was a great atmosphere of camaraderie.
"Did I miss home? It's strange. When I was in Chad, home didn't seem real. Now that I'm back, it's Chad that seems unreal. Like a different planet or something. I suppose, when I was over there, I conditioned myself to think, "This is real. This is where I am and this is what I'm dealing with'. But of course there were things I missed. You couldn't get your hands on an egg over there. I'd have loved a fried egg. Right now I can't wait to have a few rashers and sausages. But what you really miss is being able to talk to your wife or partner at the end of the day. You're away from the people that are closest to you. That's obviously the hardest part of it all."
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