POCKETFUL OF DEATH

It was Sept. 16, 1993, and hardly a typical press conference. No podiums and no flags, just plenty of weapons. An M113 armored personnel carrier painted U.N. white and stopped at a mined Croatian roadblock provided the backdrop, and reporters shouted their questions over the roar of a convoy of APCs idling restlessly off camera. The center of attention, Lt. Col. Jim Calvin, the commander of 2 Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), was fuming. Based on a cease-fire agreement negotiated by diplomats and politicians in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, Calvin had been tasked with inserting his troops between warring Serbian and Croatian forces near Medak, in the internationally unrecognized Krajina region of southern Croatia. He was frustrated by the Croats that were blocking his troops’ advance. “At some stage you have to cut the bull---- and get on with the job,” Calvin bluntly told the gathered news crews. “And all I’ve heard right now from the Croatian people at my level here is a bunch of half-baked excuses aimed at delaying us from getting on with the operation.”

With three M-84 tanks (the Yugoslav variant of the Soviet-era T-72) threatening in the distance, Calvin had deployed his infantrymen along the ditches and roadsides, their small arms loaded and locked, while gunners atop the M113 trained their BGM-71 TOW (tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) anti-tank missile tubes on the Croatian armor. The Princess Pats were determined to fulfill their mission and prepared to do battle with the Croats if necessary. International media attention, coupled with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman’s fear of subsequent diplomatic opprobrium, ultimately won the day. Within 90 minutes the Croats had removed the roadblock, and the