Christmas in Afghanistan – Part 3

January 10, 2007

Christmas Eve in the volatile Panjwayi District of southern Afghanistan and the weather has worsened. Low cloud with a light drizzle keep the helicopters grounded.

There's nothing for it but accept the risk and carry on by ground transport to the next FOB (Forward Operating Base). So we form a convoy of six armoured personnel carriers, including three of the new Nyallas, specifically designed to withstand mines and suicide bombers. All heavily armoured and heavily armed.

Next stop, the 175 or so troops of Bravo Company, 1st RCR Battle Group at "Strong Point West". Following our, by now, customary remarks, I'm honoured to join the officers and others in serving a traditional Christmas turkey dinner. It's the soldiers’ first hot meal in days.

We end up spending the night at Mas' um' Ghar, a reinforced mountain lookout post. Comfortable in our sleeping bags and tents, protected by the 300-plus soldiers of Alpha Company, a couple dozen armoured vehicles and three of our Leopard tanks, courtesy of the Lord Strathcona Light Horse, we feel quite secure.

A memorable Christmas Eve, what with bombs dropping in the distance and a JTF2 commando posted as a sentry outside our tent! Although he came in handy when Mr. Mercer and I needed to use the latrine around midnight and he volunteered to escort us with his night vision goggles.

What a totally surreal situation to wake up at six the next morning, roll up our sleeping bags, pack our kit, head over to the mess tent for coffee and a muffin ... and then shake everyone's hand and wish them a very Merry Christmas!

Back on the road (I use the word loosely) by 7:00 am. At the next stop, Sperwan Ghar, we visit with the roughly 200 soldiers and gunners of E Battery, 2nd Canadian Horse Artillery and the Recce Squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. They even let me pull the lanyard to fire one of their 155 mm howitzers during the morning's bombardment.

Later that day as we wound through one of the many small villages on our way to the PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) outside Kandahar City, I saw something that will stay with me forever.

A small boy, couldn't have been more than 5 or 6, clothed in rags, standing in the mud at the side of the road. Yet as our convoy of six armoured vehicles passed by, he hesitantly lifted his arm, waved ... and broke into the most radiant smile. In that one brief moment, the reason why we're in Afghanistan became crystal clear.

Over the remaining two days of our stay there will be hundreds of conversations and highlights.

Coffee at Tim Hortons, the official opening of the new Canada House recreation hall, and of course the concert for the 1,200 or so that showed up Christmas night in Kandahar.

Including the quick Herc flight to drop in on the forces at Camp Souter in Kabul on Boxing Day, in the end General Hillier estimates we reached about 95 per cent of our people currently "in theatre."

And, on behalf of you, I wished every one of them a very Merry, and safe, Christmas.