> http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/8517761.htm > > KENTUCKY.COM (USA) > > Posted on Sun, Apr. 25, 2004 > > Missouri woman recounts being wounded in Kosovo > > Associated Press > > ST. LOUIS - A Missouri woman who sold her home and hoped to be > dispatched to Iraq instead was sent to take part in United Nations > peacekeeping in Kosovo, only to be wounded there in a prison shootout > that killed three of her colleagues. > > Before the April 17 gunfire, Janice Biggs had thought little of > the risks when she signed on, calling the assignment "like a paid > vacation - get to travel for a year, see new things, and adventure." > > But even after being shot three times - and coming home to recover > at a suburban St. Louis hospital - the 43-year-old woman from Ballwin > says she'd return to Kosovo if given the chance. > > "Those people need help over there," she said Friday. "It's a > territory that's really trying to pull itself together. Missions like > these need to be done." > > Biggs was shot in a knee, hip and her lower back when a Jordanian > officer opened fire as Biggs and other American prison guards were > leaving a prison in Kosovska Mitrovica in a convoy. The ensuing shootout > killed three Americans and the gunman, while 11 people were wounded, > including Biggs. > > Investigators have not said why the Jordanian opened fire. > > Killed were Kim Bigley, 47, of Paducah, Ky.; Lynn Williams, 48, of > Elmont, N.Y; and Gary Weston, of Vienna, Ill. Four Kansans were among > the wounded. > > Biggs said Friday the group had finished its first day at work as > security guards at a detention center. She and her colleagues were > getting into three vehicles for a ride back to their homes when one of > the Jordanians began shooting. > > Biggs, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat nearest the > gunman, said she felt the vehicle shake from the bullets' impact and > could hear a machine gun. She never had a chance to draw her handgun > from its holster. > > After that, details remain sketchy. > > "It was pretty horrible," she said, recalling images of the > wounded being carried past her on stretchers in a Kosovo hospital. "I > knew them all. We'd been together for three weeks. Day and night. Night > and day." > > Initially, Biggs had applied with a private contractor to work for > a year in Iraq, helping to rebuild the country's jail and prison > systems. She took a leave of absence from her two-decade job in St. > Louis County corrections and sold her home, only to be sent by the > contractor to Kosovo to work for the United Nations under a contract > with the State Department. > > Biggs' father, Jim Biggs welcomed the change in plans, thinking > Kosovo "seemed like a more quiet place, more so than Iraq." > > "Since she insisted on doing something like this, we thought she'd > at least be safer," said Jim Biggs, 60, of the St. Louis suburb of St. > John. > > The shooting was the latest shock for the U.N. mission in the > province, still grappling with the fallout from violent clashes last > month between ethnic Albanians and Serbs that killed 19 and injured more > than 900 in Kosovska Mitrovica. > > Kosovo became a U.N. protectorate in 1999, after NATO launched a > 78-day air war to stop former President Slobodan Milosevic from cracking > down on ethnic Albanians seeking independence. > > After surgery on her wounds in Kosovo, Janice Biggs traveled more > than 31 hours before arriving Thursday in St. Louis. > > She's unsure when she'll be released.