Busovaca

The three here on this photo did the work on the rotation issue of the 'Geitenpad' (goat path) magazine. The left one is me. I helped to scan the photo's and did some editing/layout. Martijn van Rooij (in the middle) was the photographer of the batallion. Arjen Jäger (on the right) helped as well.

The term geitenpad came from the terrible state a lot of the roads or better: improvised tracks were in on which we drove our cars and trucks.

I'm busy setting up a special page with the original text and photo's from the "Rotatie Geitenpad".

The names of the people in the group photo:
1 sld 1 Nijboer
2 kpl Kleefman (Marco)
3 kpl van de Berg
4 kpl Jager
5 kpl Penninga
6 sld 1 Timmer
7 sld Den Boer
8 sld 1 Sonneville
9 sgt 1 Ruijsch
10 smi Schooneman
11 sld Aulad Achmed
12 maj van der Bend
13 adj De Ruyter
14 sld 1 Duiker
15 sld 1 Blijd
16 sld Hoeksma
17 kpl Benjamin
18 sld van Rooij
19 adj Batenburg
20 kpl Kuiken
21 sld Engbers
22 sld Maatjens
23 sld Langeveld
24 kap Den Dekker
25 sgt Coehoorn
26 sm Kuipers
27 kpl Hamers
28 sgt Oosterwijk

This is the group photo of the L8 rotation at the staff in Busovaca. A photo with the names is also available. Click the photo to view the photo in a larger format.

The front of the hotel. It used to be a winter resort or ski hotel. Maybe it was built in the Olympic winter games in Sarajevo (Busovaca is quite close to Sarajevo). Why the sign Nunspeet is there I really don't know, it's a small town in the Netherlands. Maybe a dutch army base is close by ... The hotel is now called 'Tisa'. Official website.

The hotel building on the compound was not enough to house all the personell. Only the officers had rooms available to them. The rest of us slept in 'prefabs' or pre fabricated units. The photo shows the inside of our prefab. Room for 5 soldiers, a stove and plenty photos of female anatomy on the walls. It was not the Hilton, but good enough.

One of the shelters on the compound. Made from an ingenious system of metal meshed baskets filled with gravel and sand. Sand is an excellent energy absorber. For infantry the earth is often suggested to be their only safe protection. For example, a .308 or 7.62 mm round of an AK47/FAL/MAG machine gun will effortlessly go through a trunk of a tree or thin brick walls.

This shelter is capable of withstanding several direct hits with heavy mortar shells. Lucklily I've never had to run inside for protection. Busovaca was relatively quiet during my stay.

This is the main treatment room in the BHP at Busovaca. This is not an operation room but more intended to perform small scale treatment and when necessary to stabilise a patient before transport to a better equipped facility.

This is the BHP (Batallion Hulp Post) at Busovaca. The BHP was built from a number of pre-fab units. The ambulances are Mercedes GD (Gelande Diesel) with a capacity of 4 patients. I have the official army user guide of this vehicle (forgot to give it back .. ;-), if you are interested in it, let me know.