Day 21/31 of my career. The people we meet. I once heard that the average person meets 10,000 people in their lives. It must be 5-10 times more than that for someone in the military. Posted every 2-3 years, on course with guys who are your best friends for three weeks, then you never see each other again, and those we meet through our work overseas. You will have to excuse all the pics today, but as I was looking at them, it was hard to leave some out, but I left many out. To keep this as short as possible, I will add comments to some pics. I have made many friends in foreign armies, but some special ones stick out, and you wish that you were still in touch with them today. Canadian celebrities including former and current hockey greats, politicians, reporters, authors, singers and so on. I met President George H. Bush (the senior) at the Duty Free Shop in the Shannon, Ireland airport. His wife was shitting on him because he wanted to buy a cheap keychain for the grandkids. I got drunk on a train with a senior cabinet minister from the Parti Quebecois. We talked about how great of a country Canada was and how great of a province Quebec was. I spoke french - he spoke english. Robin Williams performed for us. I shot the shit on the back of a Hercules aircraft with singer Jimmy Rankin - a great guy. Meeting hockey enforcer Bob Probert was a highlight - his hands were massive. Tiger Williams punched me in the chest - it hurt for days. Most of all I think of the local Cypriots, Bosnians and Afghans who I met along the way. Andy, Chris, Stelios and Cleo, Shaky the Barber, Mamma Kabob, Elvis the Barber. Curly who cleaned our clothes in Zgon, Hussein the Cook, the many interpreters. The Dukic family who immigrated to the US. I will never forget the call that we received on Christmas Eve many years ago confirming that they were safe in the US. There were always kids. Kijana, the legally blind interpreter who worked for us in Visoko in 1994, and liked Canadians so much that when the Canadian moved to a different part of Bosnia she would travel hours by bus and stay in camps for a week to work for Canadians again in 2001. She knitted the letter A for Amanda. I had not seen her since 1995 and when I snuck up beside her in the kitchen in 2001 she was wearing an RCD track suit (and she couldnt see me). When I said hi, she looked straight ahead and said Captain Cotton, I knew that you would come back. I told her that I was now a Major - she said she knew that I would make it! We had Turkish coffee until late in the night. One of the most beautiful people who I have ever met. Saleem and Chemsi (spelling?). Both Canadians, but we met in Afghanistan. Chemsi is the kindest man who I have met. Dorothy Digs Digs, and so on. Please look at the comments on some of the pics. I wish that I could have posted many more photos.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:49:38 +0000