Brenda recalls how one evening in 1995 she got a call asking if she would serve for six months as a NATO peacekeeper in Bosnia. Despite the dangers – the Dayton peace agreement had only just been signed - she jumped at the chance.
Initially she was deployed to the city of Split in Croatia, where she had a great team working for her. She then moved on to Sarajevo. There she worked permanently on night shifts at HQ 1 Signals Brigade, collating all the reports from each unit into one daily summary report.
She recalls being struck by the destruction that is caused by people in civil war, both to people and to property. She also recalls talking to a local man who was a fully qualified lawyer, but was now working as a street sweeper in order to earn a living.