UN service in Golan, Libanon, any interest?

[John Hilly]

Thanks for your photos.
Were you in POS 61?

BTW. The Finnish officer is a Colonel, so he must have been the Battalion Commander or from HQ/UNIFIL.

With best,
J-P

[fredleander]

Great postings, Arto! We UN Norwegians owe you Finns! When taking over the Finnish camp in Camp Pleso outside Zagreb (UNPROFOR) a complete sauna came with it! We used it well! I suppose you had one in Lebanon, too?

Fred

[Arto O]

Hi,
WARNING: the last two photos might affect the sensibility of some forum members.

For J-P: Yes, I was in POS61. Curiously I found some photos hidden under the furnitures, Who were the previous peace keepers there before Finnish?: Peruvians, the land where I live now. The world is small.

For Fred: Thanks for the interest. We had always saunas. Finnish cannot live without them. In Lebanon Norwegians had the most conflicted area. They were considered the most cool headed guys. Here a photo from UNIFIL calender.

CALENDER.jpg

The Litani river in South Lebanon was the unofficial border between muslim troops in north of it and IDF and Christian troops south of it. But of course it was not always respected. Here two photos of muslim troopers (AMAL or Hezhbollah) who tried to cross the river, but were ambushed or stepped on mines.

[John Hilly]

War is cruel...

For J-P: Yes, I was in POS61. Curiously I found some photos hidden under the furnitures, Who were the previous peace keepers there before Finnish?: Peruvians, the land where I live now. The world is small.

There were also Iranians after Peruvians left and before Finns came. We found several used morfin needles hidden by the Iranians in the wash shack of POS 80.

With best,
J-P

[David Thompson]

The photographs in Arto O's post, above, were removed by the moderator as too graphic, per forum guidelines (We prefer links).

[Arto O]

To David Thompson:
Were they considered to be too violent?

From UNDOF, Siria: An armoured medic transport. Is this a American M 113?

A Polish, whose tasks were supply water and mine clearing. They weren´t paid, but were making their obligatory military service.

[Arto O]

Austrians in Siria: Note the austrian rifle, which has curios design. I had once a chance to shoot with it.

[fredleander]

To David Thompson:
Were they considered to be too violent?

From UNDOF, Siria: An armoured medic transport. Is this a American M 113?

It is indeed an M113. The Norwegian rapid-deployment platoon also used those.

Fred

[John Hilly]

In 1981-82 this M-113 was situated in POS 80 2 Coy.
Austrians got those rifles as brand new in 1981.

[Arto O]

Hi,
Here some pictures about AMAL, a muslim organization, consideres by some as a moderate. They were our "neighbourgs" in Lebanon 85-86. They controlled the muslim populated area around us.
I always remember one night when I was in guard duty, and I saw a Mercedes Benz car getting close to the check point. The chassis of the car was very close to a ground, so it was heavy loaded. As orders, I stopped it, asked to open the cargo sections, it was full of RPG rockets and AK-47 rifles etc. But as we didn´t have direct orders to stop, I left them to continue. Once I had a chance to visit their radio operational center. I got surprised. A room full of radios, which constantly communicated with different groups around the area.
Here a proganda calender scans which, I suppose, try to lift a a civil resistance against Israel invasions.

A flag of AMAL

[Arto O]

I am not sure if I remeber the happenings correctly. A medical assistant, cpl. Tom Kjallman picked up a local libanese lady who was giving a birth on a road, but on the way the car drive on mine, and he died. ???? The AMAL organized a mass in his honour.

[Arto O]

Sorry,
Fred and John Hilly, thanks a lot for your adinional information
with best regards
Arto

[Arto O]

Polish in mine cleaning, Golan heights 1984

Night vision, Golan heights. I cannot remember how effective it really was.

A photo of Hafez al-Asad bought from local store. In the bazars of Damascus, one was able to buy any kind of uniforms and insignias of Sirian army, even up to general. I had a good collection of them.

[Arto O]

UN headquarter in Beirut, the UNIFIL house:

UNI.jpg (38.34 KiB) Viewed 468 times

Base floor:

UNI3.jpg (25.29 KiB) Viewed 468 times

One night spring/summer 1986 somebody fired a RPG rocket against the main gate. Luckily I wasn´t on guard duty and who was, wasn´t close to the gate. A week earlier I was cooking chili beans in the kitchen on the 3rd floor, and suddendly I observed "snow" falling in front of the window. "Hey it shouldn´t snow here". Then I realized that a bomb/mortar shell had hit the floor of the building next to us. And the snow were tiny pieces of broken windows.

UNI2.jpg (18.15 KiB) Viewed 468 times

Beirut was such a lovely place.

UNI1.jpg (47.18 KiB) Viewed 468 times

[John Hilly]

Night vision, Golan heights. I cannot remember how effective it really was.

They were infrared type.
Problem was the the UN Positions had to be clearly lighted at night, which hampered their effiency.