While serving on the team in the Humanitarian Cell of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda during the civil war in 1994, Major Racine escorted a journalist and a member of Médecins sans frontières across the front lines to visit an orphanage on 8 June 1994. The orphanage was quickly surrounded by hostile militiamen who fired on the building, wounding the journalist. Despite the personal risk, Major Racine evacuated him by negotiating his passage through fifteen roadblocks to a safe destination. His actions undoubtedly saved the journalist's life.