News Article
Bravery Honoured 18 Years after War
Young Canadian soldier named Carl Huggins showed courage amid carnage
Andy Ivens, The Province
April 27, 2010
When the city of Sarajevo was under siege in the summer of 1992, the horror stories of life in a war zone were all around, Surrey's Carl Huggins recalls.
Among the low points in his tour of duty was uncovering a concentration camp filled with starving men and boys of all ages.
Huggins also saw his comrades in arms injured and killed and was wounded by Serbian sniper fire.
He remembers the feeling of accomplishment as the peacekeeping force reopened the Sarajevo airport to allow humanitarian aid to begin flowing to the desperate residents.
But he also recalls the time he helped deliver a baby moments after the mother was fatally wounded.
"She was shot in the chest," he told The Province on Monday. "We saw her get shot.
"We decided to deliver the baby because the baby was poking her head out. We kept [the mother] alive as long as possible and helped deliver the baby," he said.
"You do what you have to do, and then you carry on and do something else," he said stoically.
Huggins, now 41, couldn't wait to become a soldier in 1988.
"I was at the graduation dinner and dance for Richmond High on Friday night, and Monday morning I went down to the recruiting centre at Sinclair Centre," he said.
Last week, Huggins finally received recognition from the Canadian government for his heroism under fire almost 18 years ago.
At a ceremony at Seaforth Armoury, he received the Governor-General's Commander-in-Chief Unit Commendation for performing a deed "of a rare high standard in extremely hazardous circumstances [in] war or warlike conditions in an active theatre of operations."
Huggins was originally scheduled to receive the award last year from Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean, but he was too busy with the birth of his and his wife's first child, a daughter.
Huggins, who joined Commissionaires B.C. in 1993 and today works as a parking enforcement officer under contract to the municipality of Surrey, received the honour from Commissionaires CEO Allen Batchelar.
"It's for doing your duty in the line of hostile fire. We were delivering humanitarian aid and securing the airport," he said.
"It's nice being recognized for something that I did basically as a young man in the formative years," Huggins said. "It's just nice to get a nod or a handshake once in a while."
Photo: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
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