During the Liberation Festival in Alkmaar, the beer flows, artists perform and children have their faces painted. But it was also possible to ‘date’; with veterans. Former non-commissioned officer Johann de Jong explains why he is present at the festival: “People can do the most cruel things to each other and can never tell why afterwards.”
“People mainly want to know what we have done and where we have been,” says 66-year-old De Jong. “My answer is: you are leaving because you are being sent out by your government. To help keep peace or bring peace somewhere. The work can be anything from disarming militarist groups to guiding elections.”
“Then you are among armed groups in Cambodia, which you may have to disarm”
The veteran – who now teaches social studies at Horizon College in Alkmaar – decides to join the military as a 15-year-old boy. He then goes on five missions from the Marines. His first is in 1991 to Northern Iraq, his last in 2004 to Bosnia. In the meantime, he goes to Cambodia, Haiti and the Persian Gulf.
“My first time on deployment was a humanitarian mission, to escort Kurds from the northern Iraqi mountains, who had fled there under the regime of Saddam Hussein,” says De Jong. He was working on this for ‘about four months’: “We helped with food distribution centers and setting up tent camps for refugees, that kind of work.”
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It was “quite a shock” to the veteran as he began his mission. “We were actually zero prepared. We just came from a training camp in Norway and went from -20 to +50 degrees, so to speak. But that also made it exciting and fun.”
In Cambodia it was different: “A year later we went there. You stand between armed groups that had signed agreements, but which you may have to disarm.” It was not always clear whether these groups would keep to the agreements.
Peace, freedom and democracy
One of the greatest lessons the veteran has learned “is that people can do the most cruel things to each other and never tell why.” “All you learn from that is how happy you should be with what we have here: peace, freedom and democracy.”
“Now look at what is happening in Ukraine,” he continues. “We know our Western norms and values, but are barely able to help. Except for a little support with weapons.”
“During a mission you are away from home for months, but life goes on there too”
De Jong has also had to make sacrifices for his work: “During a mission you are away from home for months, but life goes on there too. I can still remember well that my family was waiting when I returned. I saw my little kid standing on his own two feet for the first time – and walking, damn it. And you missed that.”
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Looking for Kurdish boy
But the rewards he got from his work made up for a lot. “Of course it pays well,” says De Jong with a laugh. “But also the gratitude of people we helped during humanitarian missions, you can live on that for a long time.”
“My hairdresser is still looking for me for a boy who stepped on a mine and survived”
For example, he says that he has a Kurdish hairdresser who was in the same area as De Jong in 1991. “We still talk about that quite regularly. At the end of the mission I rescued a little boy who had stepped on a mine, and my hairdresser is still looking for him for me when he is there. To find out how it is is with him now.”
De Jong hopes to find him. “Maybe I’ll get in my car and go see him. It’s only on the other side of the Turkish border, so it’s not that far. Those are beautiful things.”
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