Empty Casing

A Soldier's Memoir of Sarajevo Under Seige

Doucette, Fred

Book - 2008

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Perseus Publishing

When Canadian soldier Fred Doucette went to Bosnia-Herzegovina as a peacekeeper in 1995, he had a premonition that this tour of duty would be different from anything he had previously experienced. And it was. Doucette's tour quickly became an impossible task that took a huge toll on both the residents and his fellow peacekeepers. Trapped in thier beloved city, thousands of Sarajevans, perished, and yet, Doucette found a home in the midst of this hell. Billeted with a Bosnian family, he was offered a window into a Sarajevo that few outsiders saw. When the war ended, Doucette returned to Canada to face another battle, this one characterized by nightmares and brutal flashbacks. Traumatized, he had to face himself, his family, and his army once again, but now there was no turning away, no diversion in another foreign posting. Empty Casing is the riveting story of the making and unmaking of a soldier, and the growth of a man.

Blackwell Publishing
"This book is of enduring value...It is an encouraging testimony of one soldier's battle and gives invaluable hope and encouragement to other injured soldiers and their loved ones." General Rome Dallaire, from his foreword

Here is the riveting account of one Canadian soldier's gut-wrenching experiences in the Bosnian war of the 19909-and of his struggle to come to terms with life afterwards.

"This is a soldier's story told from the inside, passionate, riveting and extremely necessary---it is written with anger, compassion and first-hand knowledge and should be read with humility." David Adams Richards, Giller Prize-winning novelist

Fred Doucette served in the Canadian armed forces from the late 1960s until 2002, when he was medically released due to post-traumatic stress disorder. He now works with the Department of National Defence's Operational Stress Injury Social Support Program. He lives in Lincoln, New Brunswick