A Trip To Kandahar

Last week I had an opportunity to visit the Operational Coordination Centre (OCC) in Kandahar City. It is one of the provincial centres that reports events to my regional centre. Kandahar City is about 25 kms away from Kandahar Airfield so I would have to either drive or fly to make the visit. As it turns out my bosses vehicles became available so I drove. I know, I know, I said many times before I left that I would not be driving the roads, but the job's gotta get done. Also, it was during the quietest Eid-al-adha in eight years The surge of NATO forces into Kandahar City has made it very difficult for the insurgents to do anything like plant IEDs.

So I met the vehicles that were to take me to KC (like the one pictured) and we set off for the 45 minute drive to the city. It was uneventful (see!) and we drove up to the Governor's Palace where the OCC is located. The palace was renovated by Canada and is quite picturesque. It is across the street from the Mosque of the Cloak of the Prophet, where Mohammed's cloak is held as a relic. Mullah Omar took it out of storage in 1994 when the Taliban took control of Kandahar.

Once inside the grounds we attended our meetings and toured the site. At the back is an old concrete building that was Mullah Omar's operations centre during the Taliban years. It is planned to turn the space into a media centre. After lunch we headed back to Kandahar Airfield the same way we came, but not before witnessing a sheep round up. The Coalition staff at the OCC had purchased a sheep to sacrifice for the Eid holiday and enjoy a festive meal with their Afghan colleagues. No doubt sensing its imminent demise the sheep made a break for it and a merry chase round the Governor's garden ensued. Mechui, as we named the sheep, was quickly apprehended and pegged to the lawn to await the arrival of the mint sauce.

Remembrance Day in Kandahar

Remembrance Day is not a holiday in Kandahar, the war goes on regardless, but for an hour on the morning on November 11th Canadians at Kandahar Airfield paused for a ceremony at the memorial to the fallen inside the task Force compound. Some of the familiar elements of any Remembrance Day service back in Canada were present: the poppies worn on uniforms, the flags at half-mast and the piper playing Flowers of the Forest. There were new and different elements too. Not surprisingly the crowd was overwhelmingly military, though there were several civilians, some in their Tim Horton's uniforms, in the assembly. The uniforms were not the dark green service dress normally worn with medals displayed, but rather were the tan and brown mottled "digital camouflage" uniforms worn for a different purpose. Speeches were made, prayers were read by the chaplains and wreaths laid by representatives of Canada, Afghanistan and the Canadian Forces. One wreath was different - it was laid by a relative of one of the Afghanistan war dead. In recent years the government has flown a dozen or so relatives of the war dead to the service in Kandahar. They get a chance to see the sights and hear the sounds of the base as their loved on did.

Immediately prior to the service a different ceremony took place less than a kilometre distant. At that ceremony the casket bearing a young US Marine was loaded on an aircraft to begin his long and final journey home. Since I have arrived in Afghanistan three weeks ago, ten US servicemen have died on operations in the South. There could be no clearer illustration of the meaning of Remembrance Day than that simple send off on the airfield tarmac. It is true that Remembrance Day is about recalling the sacrifice of over 100,000 Canadians who died in the First and Second World Wars, I have been to the Commonwealth cemeteries around the world and walked among the thousands of headstones, but to me, from now on it will also be about that small casket of an American Marine being carried into the cargo bay of an aircraft

We will remember them.