A Day in the Life…for now.

So just what do I fill my days with here in Afghanistan. For the past few days I have been working at the Operations Coordination Centre, Region – South (OCCR-S) that is located at the Joint Regional Afghan National Police Centre (JRAC). This brand new facility will house the regional headquarters of the Afghan National Police (ANP), the Afghan Border Police (ABP), and the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) who are sort of a cross between the French Gendarmes and the RCMP. Coordinating the activities of these three organizations with the Afghan National Army (ANA) is the role of the OCCR-S. It is manned by Afghan police and army officers and supported by a group of US and Canadian mentors. I am the senior mentor and work with the JRAC commander, a brigadier-general in the Afghan Army.


A typical day begins at 0530 hrs and after the normal personal routine the mentor team meets at FOB Lindsay at 0700 hrs to count noses and review the day’s planned activities. I say planned as there’s many a slip thwixt cup and lip, so we always build a little flexibility into our schedule. After the meeting we load into our HUMVEES and make the 6 minute drive to the JRAC. We are well within what is called the “Bubble” of security around Kandahar airfield so the trip is uneventful. On arrival at the OCCR-S we watch the morning update from Regional Command – South Headquarters (RC(S) HQ) over at Kandahar Airfield. That takes about 40 minutes after which we have about 30 minutes to prepare for our morning brief. The Afghan police and army officers provide an overview of the events of the past 24 hrs. The mentors are developing the briefing skills of the Afghan officers, but there is also a challenge in literacy. Most of the staff are fairly senior and so can read and write Dari or Pashto, but there are some who are less strong. Our predecessors established literacy classes for the Afghans, a practice we will continue. After the briefing the routine business of the day begins. Every day brings new issues from construction priorities to finding a source for whiteboards to getting the phones to work. At lunch the Afghan officers leave to eat at the Police facility while we return to FOB Lindsay for our meal. After lunch the normal routine continues interrupted by visits from police or army dignitaries or scheduled meetings. The Afghan day ends at about 1600 hrs after which the duty personnel are the only ones on site. The mentors, less the night shift crew, return to FOB Lindsay. I usually have meeting at RC(S) HQ in the afternoon or early evening. At the end of the day, or in the afternoon if I’m lucky, I get a chance to do some PT at the gym. They have a good set-up here with a cardio gym as well as a weight room. My day ends with a bit of reading, either for work or leisure, with lights out around 2200 hrs.

Two days have different schedules: Friday and Sunday. Friday is the Muslim holy day so all Afghans, except the duty staff, have the day off. We have the morning off and go to work after lunch. A similar routine is in effect on Sunday, except the Afghans are all at work. We go in as usual but RC(S) doesn’t start till later in the morning on Sundays to allow staff to attend services.

So that’s the routine here for now. I am starting to get used to being armed all the time – I carry my pistol all the time and most times I have my rifle as well. Occasionally I am lulled to sleep by the distant sound of mortar or artillery fire, and the jets taking off from Kandahar Airfield three or four kilometres away are almost background noise now.

It's the dust you notice first.

The first thing you notice when you exit the aircraft is the dust. A fine powdery dust is everywhere at Kandahar Airfield. The thousands of people and vehicles on the base generate the dust that is palpable in the air. Although I have yet to get the ability to post photos here, the first one I took on arrival shows the dust reflected in the flash of the camera. Bu first, about arriving...

We did indeed get out of Cyprus on a C-17 on 22 October. It was an uneventful 6-hour flight that got us into Kandahar at about a quarter to midnight. We unloaded our bags and were led about in the dark to our quarters. Very nice brick two-story buildings with air conditioning. I had a room mate who I attempted not to disturb. It turns out he is a British Army Airborne Signals Sergeant who was very surprised to be sharing a room with a Colonel ("that would never happen in the British Army" he remarked). A fitful sleep was followed the next morning by briefings and in-clearance. Kandahar Airfield is a big military city. There are neighborhoods: the British sector, the Canadian sector, etc. as well as dining facilities that cater to the particular eating habits of the various nationalities. So if you want pork-fried bread for breakfast, you should head for the British dining facility!

There is a certain amount of fumbling about as you clear in to the base. You have to draw your plates for the frag vest, weapons, ammunition etc. I did have time to visit Tim Hortons though. The demand for doughnuts has become so great that there is a limit to one box per customer and they stop serving them at 1100 hrs. It was a bit unreal sitting out at night with a large double-double listening to F-16s taking off.

Our group has not taken over yet so there is some waiting around to do. While waiting I have met many friends from Canada in various jobs here - it is a small Army after all. I have yet to get my wireless internet established so I am still using the internet cafes on base, once I do get the wireless I'll be able to post some pictures. That's all for now.

On my way and almost there

This is the first entry in my Afghanistan blog, but I have yet to get to Afghanistan. After a couple of weeks of farewells from family and friends I boarded the Airbus for the flight to Baden-Baden Germany. We had been told that we would spend one night there before heading on to Dubai and then Kandahar. As it turned out, none of that happened. One thing you learn after 30 years in the military is patience. Our stay in Baden-Baden was extended by a day. The extra day allowed a few of us to take a side trip to Strasbourg in France. I have never been there and the charms of Baden-Baden soon pale if you are not very rich and keen on either spas or casinos. So a train trip to France was organized and three of our group set off. Strasbourg is a beautiful city that hasn’t quite sorted out if it’s German or French. There is a lot of German architecture and good beer (it is the home of Kronenbourg – one of the two biggest brewery businesses in France) yet everyone speaks French. We walked around town for several hours and toured the cathedral. We also had a taste of street democracy as we stumbled upon a protest against the pension reforms proposed by President Sarkozy. Our suspicions were raised by the groups of policemen in riot gear we began to see massing in the side streets. While in the town museum we heard the crowd march by on its way to one of the main squares in Strasbourg – Place Kleber. It was a very peaceful crowd with none of the violence you may have seen on the TV news – a tribute, I believe to the orderly Germanic nature of the average Strasbougeoisie. After the demonstration we headed for the train station where the impact of the other part of the day’s protest was felt. The national rail system in France was on strike. The SNCF was running a t about 50% capacity and we joined the throngs of commuters waiting to see if their trains would run. It turns out our train, booked on a German line, would depart on schedule so we had time to watch the spectacle of the French police blowing up an abandoned bag in the train station. It all happened very non-chalantly as the police moved people back about 2 minutes before the detonation. A smallish boom then rang out and five minutes later all were on their way. Two things struck me: the first was that if the same event had happened at Union Station in Toronto the entire city would have shut down. The second was that it was odd that my first IED was in France! (Although the package turned out to be a bunch of clothes and some baguettes).

We departed Baden-Baden in the morning and received news that the recent diplomatic kerfuffle between the UAE and Canada would impact our itinerary. It appears that our scheduled stop at Camp Mirage in the UAE would be cancelled and we would be disembarking in Cyprus. Originally we were supposed to stop there and drop a few passengers. Now the plan was for us all to stay in Cyprus until a flight could be arranged directly into Kandahar. Another thing you learn in military is flexibility. So we were booked into a hotel in Paphos for two nights and possibly more. This hotel is normally used as the decompression site for our soldiers returning from Afghanistan. They get counselling and get to talk about their experiences with their peers before returning home. It has shown to help reduce the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder. We, on the way in, had merely to wait. The Hotel Azia is a very nice spot. Very popular with British and Scandinavian tourists it was relatively empty when we arrived. I searched my memory for any words of Greek that I might know to speak to the waiter at our restaurant. Turns out the only one I could recall was “expelliamus” which I proceeded to use to greet our server loudly. After several attempts at communication one of the British tourists seated nearby reminded me that “expelliamus” is actually from the Harry Potter books. After a great meal of swordfish and Cypriot beer we toddled off to bed.

The next day, as we waited for news from Canada, Kandahar, or the airport, we got a chance to relax at this very nice resort hotel. A morning run along the waterfront was followed by a lazy afternoon reading by the pool. I am halfway through the “Girls with the…” trilogy. Late this afternoon we learned that we will fly out tomorrow as the C-17 is on its way to Cyprus.

If all this sounds a little less like “Dave goes to War” and more like “Dave is on another holiday in Europe” it feels that way for me too. I can’t imagine the Canadian troops on their way to the Second World War stopping off for two days on the beach. The break was appreciated, however, as that last few days before departure are stressful. It also is a good way to get over jet-lag: to get over an 8.5 hour time difference, just take 5 days to get there!

With any luck and the good offices of the Canadian Air Force, my next entry will be from Afghanistan. Yassas!