When I was in the military in the early 1990s, I was posted to Cambodia to help with the peacekeeping mission. The Vietnamese troops and withdrawn and the Khmer Rouge had withdrawn into the mountains. Our job was to try and pull the country out of devastation, disease and carnage after over 20 years of war. The biggest issue was landmines, they were everywhere. The courage I saw came from two perspectives. The first was the Cambodian people who had suffered so horribly under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. They had nothing and all they wanted was peace, schools, and a means to improve their lives. They were an incredibly resilient people who still seemed to have a positive outlook. The 2nd perspective came from the engineers who were there trying to rid the country of landmines. It was estimated there were over 10 million mines in Cambodia in 1993. The country had and still has the highest number of amputees all caused by mines. The engineers, known in the military as sappers, would expose themselves to incredible danger every day trying to clear mines and booby-traps. During my time there, many of them were killed or severly injured.
The incredible courage of both these groups of people made a huge impression on me. Even today I frequently think of them and how courageous they were.

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