Kaido Ojamaa

 

We all have our memories of that turbulent time. At the time I was a member of the U.S. Army Military Police stationed in Germany.

I was assigned to a Military Police Customs unit in the Stuttgart area.

The morning of the Coup, on the 18th of August,1991, I was out and about conducting Customs Inspections.

I rang the doorbell at a Soldier's apartment and announced myself "Senior Military Police Customs Inspector".

 

The Soldier immediately opened the door and let me in, saying: "Did you hear what happened, it's all over with" . "In Moscow and the Soviet Union".

I said that particularly concerns me personally, as I have relatives in Estonia. We both watched AFN news live in his apartment.

I was silently praying that somehow the Almighty God would intervene with a miracle.

 

Which sure enough did shortly occur in a matter of hours when the Coup started to fall apart and when Estonia and Latvia declared a full restoration of independence.

I was thinking maybe I should take leave and go to Estonia to somehow help assist, or organize a defence against the Soviet terrorists.

A few days later the Army Chaplain, who was of Hungarian background, Father Cometsky, told me knowing my background as half Estonian: "The Estonian people should be very grateful to God for the restoration of Estonian independence".

I responded to Father Cometsky to the effect of: “Yes, indeed, this is a very big miracle for which the Estonian people must be deeply grateful to God.”

 I went on to state that, I personally have been praying consistently every night from my childhood on for the restoration of Estonian independence and for my Estonian and Polish relatives to be safe from the brutality of Communist terrorism.

A few years later, when my Regular U.S. Army Service time was over with, I was asked by an Estonian expatriate who was a retired U.S. Army Colonel turned new Estonian General Officer, the Commander in Chief of the then fledgling Estonian Defense Forces Army, to come to Estonia to assist in the development of the new Estonian military.

I did so in 1995, when I was appointed the Provost Marshall (Chief of Military Police) of Tallinn.

My personal opinion of the era regarding the restoration of Estonian independence is that the leadership of the Popular Fronts of Estonia and Latvia made a big mistake by not immediately unanimously joining together with Lithuania in declaring a total restoration of full independence on March 11th of 1990, as Lithuania got a treaty from the Soviet Union's government in its favor.

The possibilities were there for Estonia and Latvia to do the same and even possibly get back the pre-1944 borders according to the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty.

As such, a unified unanimous declaration of the complete restoration of the independence of the Republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all together on March 11th  1990, would have been a better solution, ending with treaties favorable to our national interests.