User talk:Vrcel Designs

Operation Storm 1995

EVACUATION

I heard the loud noise. This was nothing new to me. Shootings, bombs dropping, this was something we were used to.

I told my mother to wake up. "There is a shooting," I said. She told me to go back to bed. "There must be a wedding," she said. The shooting got more intense as the first bomb dropped.

My mother got up and woke up my brother.

We ran to the basement. The bombing stopped, but it wasn't over. I went to my cousin’s house to feel more secure. We were not safe at this point, but little did we know.

I went home right away just to experience another drop. A bomb dropped near by. My brother and I ran to the basement. The path to this secure place reminded me of the first bombing, when we ran in our socks.

I pulled my dog by its tail down the stairs. This is when I heard it. "Dear mother help me." It was my neighbor. His house was hit while he was standing in his backyard. It cut his legs off, and metal pieces from the grenade went through his head.

This is when people panicked. Another house got bombed. A mother was in the bedroom changing her baby as the glass shattered and went through her body.

The whole town ran to the tunnel located deep under the railroad.

This was around 9am. The bombing didn't start. I held my dog Boni. As I entered the tunnel, I passed the grave of my old dog whose name was also Boni.

The bombing didn't stop.

My mother pulled out two batteries and placed them in the radio. We listened to the Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman. He was telling us not to evacuate. 11 years later, a Croatian solider admitted that Tudjman wanted everyone to stay in order for them to be killed. We experienced the Ethnic Cleansing.

The radio didn't stay on too long. We figured that the station in Knin got bombed.

The bombing continued throughout the day. My mother made a couple of trips home to bring us some food and clothing. All we could feel were the silence and the noise of the cold water rushing through our feed. It was over I thought. I had no hope of going beyond this point. People panicked saying that we will be killed in here.

I believed them. I had no hope of surviving. I was only 10, and afraid to the point where I felt no fear.

At around 9pm my mother heard a tractor. It was Djuro, a hero who saved us. I call him a hero. He was our last hope. We got on the tractor with him and left....

This was only the beginning....