"We reported taking our position, and we called it the new Stalingrad. All the guns were blazing. Mortars, machine guns, automatic rifles, and even the Czechoslovak twin cannons that were firing all the way around. I don't know if they hit him in the barracks because the cannon could spin a full 360 degrees while firing. We thought, when it's over, they'll probably go and bury him, or maybe he's gone insane..."
"I introduced myself and he says, 'I hope you'll do better than the former platoon leader who absolutely couldn't handle it.' I walked over to the soldiers and had them lined up. I told them, 'I'm not going to threaten you in any way, but whoever doesn't want to be here, guys, leave the military now and get a civilian life. Those who stick with us will go on to Kuwait with us.' We started the drills, we did equipment checks, we did practice runs, and we weighed the vehicles and the individual axles. Then the Americans came. We loaded it all onto C-5A Galaxy planes, and we flew to Saudi Arabia via Spain."
"It was Saturday morning, three o'clock I think, when the liaison officer rushed in and told me to come to the barracks now. He said we had been attacked but didn't know who did it. We thought we had been attacked by the Americans, so we sounded the alarm, the whole regiment went out to the border, and then we found out we had gone the wrong way two or three days later. We came back, all crying. I was crying listening to the radio over how the Russians had deceived us. But, what were we supposed to do?"
Jan Josef was born in Prague on 14 September 1941. He trained as a turner and worked in a factory for some time. Later on, still a minor, he joined the army. Thanks to his education he took care of the army‘s fleet and taught technical subjects. In 1968 he took part in a hot sortie to the border during the invasion. His military career was rife with experience from foreign missions. Between 1982 and 1988, he worked as a teacher of technical subjects in Libya. From 1990-1991, he served as the leader of a technical and auxiliary team in the Czechoslovak Anti-Chemical Battalion during Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. He spent his last mission in 1992-1993 as a military observer for UNPROFOR in Yugoslavia. He ended his career in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, retiring in 1996. He was living in Prachatice in 2022.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
