It is 30 years since the first overseas mission of the GROM unit, which was carried out in Haiti. Peter Andrews, who worked for 22 years as a Reuters Agency photojournalist, was a witness and documenter of these events. How did he come to be a GROM photographer, who took photos of the unit's soldiers in various locations and situations for more than 20 years? Tomasz Lukaszewski talked about memories, people, photographs and friendship.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of GROM's first overseas mission to Haiti. It was there that you began your cooperation with this unique Polish special unit, which lasted for more than 20 years. How did it come about that you became a GROM photographer?
In those days I worked for the Reuters Agency. I ended up in Haiti before GROM was even there. At that time there were a lot of violent incidents there, during which one of our journalist colleagues was shot in the head. The agency always sent me to dangerous places, so it was decided that I would replace the wounded colleague and go to Haiti.
One day I learned that there was a very secret Polish special unit on the island. I didn't know at the time that it was called GROM. I wanted to find it and contact its members.
At that time, the Americans brought President Jean-Bertranad Aristide to the island and I attended some kind of ceremony with him. It was there that I saw two Polish soldiers standing in the distance. I remember that they were both colonels. After the official part of the ceremony was over, I wanted to get their attention. I started touching my arm where the military men had the eagle emblem and waving my arms at them like some kind of madman.
They came up to me and asked in English what I meant. One of them turned out to be the then GROM commander Colonel Slawomir Petelicki. I don't remember who the other officer was. I replied in Polish that I was a Reuters employee accredited in Haiti and that I had learned that there were soldiers of a Polish special unit on the island. I asked directly if it was them, because I would like to meet and discuss the possibility of taking some pictures with them. I remember that the colonel (in the rest of the interview, for obvious reasons we will use the rank of general in the conversation - ed. note) looked at me sternly and said that he had to think about it and that he would contact me in a few days.
How long did you wait for contact from General Petelicki and where did your next meeting take place?
At the time, I lived in the now-defunct Hotel Montana. It was destroyed in an earthquake a few years later. In the evening of the same day I was in the hotel bar and was approached by the receptionist, who informed me in a shaky voice that there were armed soldiers waiting for me in the lobby. I followed him and saw four Polish soldiers. There is an amusing anecdote associated with this encounter, for the rest. The commander of this small group approached me and asked in English: "Mr. Andrews? Do you speak English?" I replied: "Yes, but I speak excellent Polish." That soldier turned out to be Piotr Gąstal - BIS. To this day we still joke about it. But going back to that meeting - I was informed that the general was proposing a meeting - now. I got into their car and we drove to the Polish base.
How did you convince the general to cooperate?
The general welcomed me, showed me around the base and asked what I really wanted. I said that if he agreed then I would like to do reporter material about the unit. Just let him indicate the time and place and I will be there. If I remember correctly I said: "please indicate to me what I can photograph and what I can't - I will comply. Then when I photograph it, you or your subordinate will go with me to my office, where I develop the photos in the darkroom." Back then it was still the days of negatives. "The Lord will look at the photos and point out the ones I can have and use and the other photos you will take away. I don't want them at my place."
The general looked at me as if I were a person not from this world, because mostly journalists behave like hyenas. After a short thought, he agreed, and that's how my adventure with GROM in Haiti began, which continued uninterrupted until 2015. None of the photos I took, which I was not allowed to use, ever surfaced anywhere.
Did you often accompany and document the activities of Polish soldiers in Haiti?
I traveled with GROM soldiers almost every day and was always assigned a security detail of four soldiers. For the three months that I was in Haiti I spent almost all my time with the thunderbolts. I remember that even when my car was destroyed by Hurricane Gordon, which passed through the island at the time, the unit provided me with a car to use until my vehicle was decongested.
From what I hear, cooperation with the command was model. And how was cooperation with ordinary GROM soldiers in Haiti?
Fantastic. So far, the people in this unit are the best friends I have. They are people who can be completely relied upon. They offer advice and always help whether on a mission or in ordinary life. I had a fantastic friend there in the person of Andrzej Drewniak, Slawek Gorka or Andrzej Kruczynski. I didn't see Piotr Gąstal in Haiti very often at the time, because BIS was then assigned to protect General Mead. These were and are fantastic people.
GROM was the first special unit of the Third Republic trained on the model of Western special units. How did the unit perform on its first foreign mission in terms of organization, preparation and equipment?
In terms of equipment, I remember that GROM had MP5s at the time - which was quite different from what Western units had at the time. In fact, there were big differences, but GROM was prepared more for urban operations than for fighting in the field. It's hard for me to say more about this, because I didn't accompany the soldiers on all their trips to Haiti. Not because I didn't want to, but because not everything can be photographed and shared with the media.
Not every journalist has the same attitude as you. Some find it difficult to understand that working with special forces soldiers is different from the work of an ordinary reporter.
I have always adhered to such a philosophy. I was once in Afghanistan and met Italian carabinieri from a special unit there who were training Afghan soldiers in 2001. I was taking pictures of them and saw that one very nice soldier was not comfortable with the situation. I asked him directly if he was from the special unit and did not want his face to be shown. He confirmed. I deleted all the photos I took during this session. It was easy because it was already the time of digital cameras.
Is this approach the world standard, or is it your private and personal approach to working with special forces?
These are personal thoughts that have been born throughout my career. I started photographing professionally when I lived in Canada. I used to take regular press photos in Montreal quite often. I once photographed a fire and saw local reporters who were very aggressive about people being injured and burned. I believe that there must always be some balance in all of this and respect for those who are suffering. I can take such pictures but with a long lens from a distance.
When it comes to special forces, their operations are secret and can be a source of trouble and sometimes even suffering for the soldiers themselves as well as their loved ones. There are groups that would be very keen on breaking up units like GROM. It is very easy to find someone's family by revealing the face of the operator. My approach was that these soldiers are who they are and their faces are not shown.
Were the principles you espouse appreciated by GROM soldiers? Were they more open to you and did your relationship build as a result?
I think it helped a lot in building mutual relations. I took pictures of GROM until 2015, until I left Poland completely. Always, whether the commander was Gen. Petelicki, Gen. Polko, Col. Zawadka, Gen. Pataląg or Piotr "BIS", I had access to the unit. They knew very well that my work would not go in any other direction than the one adopted by GROM. I always showed them what pictures I wanted to send for publication and they had full confidence in me.
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As I mentioned before, I never showed the soldiers' faces in the photos. They were always either masked or I covered their faces. Of course, in Haiti they didn't mask their faces. They only had big black glasses and through that you could recognize them, but there was an agreement with the commander at the time. At the time, the general was more interested in publicizing in the media the fact that there was such a special unit in Poland. The general was a brilliant strategist and could skillfully "play" the media. At some point, I also fit into these activities.
What do you mean when you say that the general was able to skillfully "play" the media?
Creating a special unit like GROM requires knowing who to talk to and how to talk to them. This is a very political situation. The media are sometimes very useful in such matters. Now we also see that the media in various situations are used to build a positive opinion of a project. This much I can say on this subject.
Do you remember any photo taken in Haiti that was a great reporter photo but the general did not agree to use it.
There was never such a situation with the general. In a way, the general trusted my instincts. I was never at a situation during which GROM had to use its assets or weapons. They were there in my opinion more on a peacekeeping mission. Because of their presence, people behaved very differently. Even the population of the biggest slums did not age any problem. When GROM soldiers walked it was everyone who spread out to the sides. You could feel the mutual respect on both sides: the GROM soldiers to the local population and the local population to the GROM soldiers.
Is there a photo from that time that brings back strong memories, reflecting the quality and value of the unit?
After 30 years since those events, I no longer remember. There were a lot of unpleasant situations in Haiti but, as I said at the beginning of our conversation, this was mainly the case even before GROM arrived. As the unit arrived the situation had already begun to stabilize, although it was still hot in the north. Hurricane Gordon had still passed through, and GROM was helping the local population deal with the effects of the elements. However, I don't remember any exceptional photos.
You could say that my photos from Haiti were more of a PR nature and used to promote the unit, for example, a general sitting in a car among soldiers, a soldier standing by a Black Hawk taking off or landing, or one of the soldiers escorting the head of the UN or another important person. These were photos more of that nature.
Your cooperation with the unit and friendship with GROM soldiers began in Haiti. How did this develop in the following years?
It developed a lot. After returning from Haiti in 1994, we immediately began to meet already on a friendly footing in various places. Later, General Petelicki invited me to take photos in the unit. Subsequent commanders knew my reputation and continued to let me take photos of the Unit. That's when I took my best photo of GROM soldiers. Everyone says it's the world's most famous photo of Navy Seals, and the truth is that it's 4-5 GROM soldiers coming out of the water, still holding MP5s with silencers at the time. There was a whole series of such photos. Later, over the following years, I took photos at various locations in Warsaw or Combat Team "B" by the sea. Over all these years the unit developed a lot. Soldiers had better and better equipment to match Delta Force or Navy Seals.
Did such encounters occur only in Poland? Did you accompany GROM on their subsequent missions?
Such encounters have occurred in different parts of the world. In 2003, for example, no one knew that GROM was in Iraq. Even ordinary American soldiers had no such awareness. At that time in Iraq, I accompanied American soldiers from a tank battalion. And suddenly I met Andrzej Kruczynski. GROM was carrying out an operation in Kuwait at the time. Andrzej knew perfectly well that I would not tell anyone anything about the unit and its mission. There is one famous photo from that period, the author of which was my now deceased colleague from Reuters. The photo shows a group of Polish soldiers standing together with General Polko with his face exposed.
I also once encountered thunderbolts in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was such a funny situation too, because I knew they were there - they were even supposed to pick me up from the airport, but they didn't show up. I was assigned to the Canadian troops at the time. I ask the captain, who acted as my liaison with the military if she knew where the Polish special unit was stationed. The captain was surprised to hear only that there was no special unit here. The next day I met them by chance at the canteen. I was sitting with the GROM guys, who were then in shorts and all bearded, and my captain walked past us. She looked on in disbelief at who I was sitting there with. From then on she already viewed me differently.
All my friendship with the GROM soldiers continues all the time.
How do you think GROM was and is perceived in the world? At the time of the mission in Haiti, GROM was a unit unknown to anyone, you could say it was on the rise. How is it perceived now?
Very good. Everyone around the world that I've talked to highly praises GROM. You can say that now all special units are at a similar level. Maybe the SAS, Delta Force or Navy Seals are a bit ahead, because they have a very long tradition and history of achievements. However, when it comes to equipment and training, GROM strives to be the best with everything. All the soldiers who have been in the unit and are now training their successors strive to make it as world-class as possible.
Is there anything that GROM lacks to these listed top units?
Now I don't know, because I've been out of the loop since 2016. A lot may have changed in eight years. It's like light years, but it's hard for me to determine. Especially what is happening in Ukraine is causing a lot of changes. I'm sure the unit is developing, especially since we have a very good relationship with the Americans, but in which direction and how it goes I won't say. I don't have such knowledge and even if I did I couldn't say anything about it.
Next year GROM will be 35 years old. This is already a just age. Do you want to pass on any special wishes for former and current GROM soldiers.
I would like them to be safe at all times, this is probably the most important thing. It should be remembered that service in the special forces is very interesting and it is an exciting life, but you need to have a dual personality - you are different for your family, and different while serving. Therefore, I would like to wish them to always return from their missions to their families complete and in full health.
Thank you for the interview!
