| Royal United Services Institute of Vancouver Island | ||||||||||||||
  |
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
If the greatness of life is measured in deeds done for others, then Canada’s sons and daughters who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan stand among the greatest of their generation. More than anyone else, Afghans very much understand that these sacrifices are for a great, good cause, the cause of all of us as humanity.—22 Sept, 2006
Excerpts from May-June 2006: Greetings once again from Afghanistan. Hope this (spring) message finds you all high and dry. Here, it.s very dry as our rainy season appears over.
Another sign of spring is the need to start taking our anti-malarial medication again and continue for the next six to eight months. Depending on the type, one is prone to sleep disruption and nightmares, or to skin sensitivity to sun exposure.
We really must get the PRT (provincial reconstruction team) removed from the tourist brochures.. for the region. I.m joking of course. In the last three weeks we.ve had at least a half-dozen high-echelon military or government visitors, or groups of visitors. Most coalitions have been represented in this rotation of battlefield sightseers...As a result, it becomes a case of: Death by Power Point Presentations..every time someone new arrives. I.ve suggested creating holograms of ourselves to do the presentations saving us from the drudgery of repetition. No one has yet taken me up on it.
As you.ve seen in the media, our opponents Tommy Taliban and his insurgent friends have been very active in the region. While they still pose a continual threat to coalition forces, they have begun to target the Afghan security forces and officials .bolstering the image of the insurgents as gaining the upper hand. The fact is not that the insurgents are strong, but that the Afghan institutions are weak and vulnerable. That is why we are here.
The insurgent attack tactics of ambush, suicide and roadside bombings show that they are not all that strong. These are desperate acts. They lack the numbers to stand and fight. Their small guerrilla groups are difficult to locate and root out.
On a positive note, with our Military police brethren we are making ambitious plans for police training courses that will begin soon (but) they must first learn to survive insurgent attacks so that they can then carry out their policing duties.
It is all very daunting and I.m amazed that there are people willing to be police here at all, given the danger, low pay, poor equipment and lack of government support. They are a brave and hearty lot.
I attended another police graduation at the Regional Training Centre. It was as it always is, with speeches, certificates, pomp and ceremony, Afghan style. The difference this time was that there were six female police trainees in residence. This is significant because I know of only two or three female police in all of the Province. In this conservative area of the country, where seeing a woman not wearing a burkah is a rarity, policing is hardly the career of choice.
Regards, Wayne Martin RCMP Superintendent Martin is senior Canadian police advisor.
(As related by SHELLDRAKE – the nickname for a gunner on a radio net)
Excerpts: First off I apologize for the length of this email, as it contains two weeks worth of Afghanistan fun. ...seven years of training culminating in 14 action packed days. When ..I read the deplorable media coverage for the largest operation Canadians have been involved in since Korea, I really felt I had to write it all down (hopefully) to give you an appreciation for what we are really doing here in this state of armed conflict.. (lawyers say we can.t use the word WAR).
At our Forward Operating Base (FOB) we were told that we were going to be part of a full-out three- day (HA HA) battle group operation. .We were rolling for Pashmul in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar province. In the attack there were our three infantry company groups, both troops of artillery, an engineer squadron, two companies of Afghan National Army (plus all their attached American embedded training teams (ETT), as well as .American and British fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Additionally we had elements of US Infantry and UK Paras conducting blocks to prevent the enemy from escaping. (The battery commander[major] and the three FOOs (forward observation officers including the author)[ captains] were going in on the attack.
The night of the 7th Sept around 2200 hrs, the author with his Infantry company group rolled for Pashmul. ..about 0030 I had my head out of the turret commanding my LAV with my night vision monocular on. Two RPG rounds thundered into the ground about 75m (away). (I) thought, Huh, so that.s what an RPG looks like...The sound of AK 7.62mm fire cracking all around the convoy snapped me back to reality. ..(The enemy) were on both sides of us adding to the fog of war...
We let off about 20 rounds of frangible 25mm from our cannon at guys about a 100m away before (the cannon jammed). We went to our 7.62 coax machine gun and fired one round before it too jammed!! .as I stuck my head out of the LAV I realized the bad guys were still shooting.I quickly popped back down realizing that was probably one of the stupider ideas I have ever had in my life!
The first troops in contact lasted about two hours. The radio nets were busier than I had ever heard before. (Most of the infantry subunits) had all been hit simultaneously, showing a degree of coordination not seen before in Afghanistan. ..After traveling about 300m our lead platoon came under fire. .The company comd issued a quick set of frag..orders (for) my first ever company attack. He signaled me to dismount and follow him. ..(from a second story ledge on a mud wall) the company commander pointed out a compound and said, Can you hit that?) I lased the building and found it to be only 89m away. (Back in Canada we never bring artillery in much closer than 1000m..Imagine what I was thinking.I sat down and did the math. I looked at him and said that in theory.we were OK but I made him move one of the platoons back 150m. ..the first round landing about 350m from my position.exploded almost deafening. (The FOO course sure hadn.t prepared for this!)...a Drop 200m, the round came in and landed a bit left of the compound. We lased the impact found it was 105m from us. We gave a small correction and went into Fire For Effect with 50% ground burst and 50% air burst. The rounds came 85m from us, right on the compound. Truly I did not appreciate the sheer frightening and awe- inspiring nature of proximity ( the air burst rounds).
What was to be a three-day battle went on for 14 days before the towns were taken back. The young FOO concluded by stating how proud he was of the entire Company Group. He said, Combat is the ultimate test of an officer. .We soldiered hard and long and showed the enemy that messing with Canadians is a really bad idea. We accomplished something in the last two weeks that Canadians have not done since Korea. The Afghan Government, elected by the Afghans, requested our assistance and we were able to help. Good Shooting, SHELLDRAKE
|
Top | | | Index | | | Previous | | | Next | © RUSI VI 2006 | |
