So last tuesday I finally flew home from Syria after a long six and a half month deployment, yes I said six and a half because our tour got unexpectedly extended.....
So back in April we flew into Tel Aviv airport in Israel to beging our mission on the Israeli occupied Golan Heights in Syria, I'm saying occupied Syria and not Israel, as it is not Israel despite what many Israelis believe the Golan is still Syria which is occupied by Israel.
Our job there was a quick reaction force to essentially rescue any United Nations Military Observers who came under fire from spill over from the war in Syria who's job was to make sure the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria is being upheld.
We were in occupied Golan for about 4 months and and I'll be honest I never saw any aggression from Syria but many missile launches from occupied Golan into Syria.
While we were in occupied Golan we were not treated with very much welcome to be honest a lot of Israelis did not like us but I will not paint them all with the same brush I met lots of very nice people while in Israel.
In August we moved from Occupied Golan, through Israel, lebanon the across Syria back into Syria itself. I wasn't sure what to expect in Syria as western media paints such a terrible image of what it's like in Syria and of the people of the country itself.
I can say in all honestly that the people of Syria are the nicest, most welcoming and friendly I have met in the middle east so far. Even the SAAF (Syrian military) are very welcoming and friendly, far more so then any member of the IDF I met in occupied Golan. The country is not just a breeding ground for terrorists it hosts a very determined, hopeful population that has endured so much pain and suffering at the hands of the war. Damascus itself is such an amazing and safe city, I happily strolled the streets on my own being offered help and welcome by the Syrian people. I definetly want to return to explore it without an army leash.
There were plenty of ups and downs during the six months, unfortunately while I was here myself and my fianceé broke up which caused a lot of pain while I was stuck in Syria but I met many great people and spent the six months with a great unit which were like family.
So we were due to go home on the 2nd of October, on the sunday before we were set to travel to Beirut airport we packed our bags, had them searched by the military police and handed them in to be locked into a container for transport the Beirut.
That evening we were called in for a meeting. Something went wrong with our plane and we weren't going home. For two days we had no clue what was going on or why we couldn't go home until another meeting was called two days later. Turns out someone within our department of defence screwed up all our diplomatic paperwork due to gross incompetance and we got held for an extra two weeks.
So it was an interesting trip and I will leave you with a few photos.
