The first time I ever discharged my weapon on the job was on a trip to Turkey. In the early summer of 1991, I was a cherry and pup of a Pararescueman: my primary job over the 60-day deployment was towards a dedicated CSAR alert at Incirlik Coalition Air Base, Turkey. As luck would have it, I was tasked very short-term to a Kurd camp in the far Eastern region of Turkey for a humanitarian relief effort. TSgt Dave Bourland was my Team Leader (TL) from the Portland, OR Team. Awesome PJ, a reservist and full time police officer, Dave taught me so much during this deployment. We had eight or so PJs assigned to the CSAR mission, and we wanted to rotate as many guys to the camp as we could over the next few months to help out and to gain critical austere experience. 

These Kurdish refugees were in a bad way, still beaten from Sadam’s actions towards them following the Gulf war; they needed aid, food and better shelter. The environment had been taking its toll on them. I was a short term tag-along with an AFSOC unit of about four Combat Controllers and 15 or so field medics from Hurlburt Field, Florida. In the seven days, I was at the camp; we mostly provided medical treatment to the injured. I helped deliver a few babies and extracted a bunch of abscessed teeth. We also organized air drops of food, water and medical supplies and help build shelters in our support to the refugees.

 The Kurdish crowd was mostly calm and steady in their daily actions. I did not see one incident of cultural or religious tension. United Nations convoys tried to make it to our location, it was slow going due to the very mountainous terrain and the ever present earthquakes and avalanches in the region. I arrived via the helicopters in our CSAR unit. The helos could not carry enough rations and supplies for the massive group (thousands) in need. The air drops barely supported the population’s essentials as it was. Within a few months a UN vehicle supply chain would be established. The team from Hurlburt Field was a gap filler, a rapid pre-aid before the conventional sustained support could be maintained. 

My last late afternoon in the camp, twelve hours before I was scheduled to depart back to Incirlick, an air drop of water took place. Within a second of the  pallet hitting the ground a large male portion of the population frantically attacked the water, as a result it was spilling everywhere. “Not good,” I recall saying to myself from fifty-yard-away and slightly-higher observation post. The atmosphere and mood was very frenzied as the crowd panicked and spilled the precious content of every small container that was roughly handled.

The Special Tactics Officer (STO) in charge, a young Captain, instructed a couple of us to fire over the crowds head to disperse them. We did and the crowd slowly detached in fear and confusion. His quick thinking and order to fire saved two thirds of the water that would have surely been lost in the chaos. More importantly and impressively, he immediately instructed us to form the crowd in a line and issue the water. With weapons slung over our backs, barrels still hot, we were now issuing water in a semi-orderly fashion. He also simultaneously had his interpreter explain to the crowd our reasoning for using our weapons to restore order.

This officer was quick-acting and an instant thinker; I was very impressed, though this seemed like a non-event in his life, just part of the job. Officers who own the earth they walk on, due much better than those who are nebulous. 

Amazing thinkers and decision makers, I was motivated by the many examples of leadership I witnessed whenever I was around STOs my first couple of years in the Air Force. 

This type of action we performed in the camp is exactly what drew me to this job. It was not conventional: we used a tool for an “effects based” result other than its primary intended use, we had care in our action, and it could have been seen as malice without the follow-through of our leader’s detailed communication and explanation. We made eye contact and even apologized, yet the greater good needed to be championed as I discharged all of one thirty-round magazine in three-round bursts over our friends’ heads. Well over their heads, every round impacted the side of a mountain where I aimed. No one was accidentally shot, no one was injured, except for some scrapped knees as they scurried. This assault to restore order quickly became a non-event. 

The rationalist in me questioned for a sixteenth of a second about how screwed-up it is to shoot towards people to help them. The realist in me knew it was absolutely the right call and showed our resolve to help all those people. The water was much more important than their momentary hurt feelings. The actions and follow on communication were so very key to our refugees understanding. They were scared, cold, hot, bored, confused, tired, thirsty, and hungry. Saddam, took out his sadistic anger on them; the Turks openly hated the Kurds too. We took our weapons of war turned them into noise makers for a couple of seconds and refocused the crowd back at the need of collective survival. Since that day I have fired tens of thousands of rounds or more on our training ranges to be ready to kill my enemy if called upon. 

I only fired a weapon on the job one more time in the next 28 years. 

Reflecting back, what startled me most in this moment was how quick it came; we had no indication the entire crowd would do this, and thankfully, it ended as quickly as it started. I would come to realize in my career that you must be ready for that which will blindside you. My survival, success and sanity would rest with my promptness, second nature and faith. Of my 33 years served, 15 would be post 9/11, my foundation was continually tested.  

To this day when I tell this story, some people just don’t get it. They see our actions as tormenting these people. They realize the water was crucial in many ways to the camp, and yet a few almost look at me as a baby killer or renegade with no integrity. Our actions saved lives by saving crucial provisions. It is very hard to see the sights and sounds as well as feel the desperation of the moment and no matter how hard I might try, I cannot fully describe them. If you have seen the movie World War Z, it had that feel for a minute. 

I guess it is a tall order for some people to see, and then believe in the calmness towards the positive result of our actions. How can anyone be calm discharging a weapon in a foreign land? Easy, you train to do your job to proficiency, we did and we were composed as we executed what we had trained to do. 

Some people’s hesitation and questionable acceptance is understandable. A great portion of our general population can’t create homeostasis in their daily walk of life, let alone believe that discharging our weapons can have  a positive outcome in a high-altitude immigrant camp. Then again, I can’t relate to peoples’ passions for looking at spreadsheets all day long or save a tree before a baby, or eat bon-bons instead of Vietnamese cold noodles covered with grilled lemon grass beef, pickled carrots and fish sauce. 

Authored By: Joseph Barnard, Retired Pararescueman Officer

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