The red maple leaf flutters casually in the crisp, cold morning breeze. Surrounded on all sides by dramatic snow-capped mountains, the scene could easily be Banff or Whistler. It’s only when you follow the flagpole down, and see the military vehicles parked nearby, that you realize you’re in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The 920 members of the Canadian Forces contribution to the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan no doubt appreciate this weather more than some of the coalition soldiers from sunnier climates.
The brisk, frosty morning inspires a street hockey game on the main thoroughfare of Camp Eggers, located in downtown Kabul. The familiar clatter of hockey sticks is interrupted by the nostalgic call of ‘car.’ The nets are pulled aside and a convoy of armoured vehicles passes the small cluster of Gretzky’s and Yzerman’s. The morning exercise is soon over and each player heads off to do their part in the NATO mission advising Afghan National Security Forces.
Lt. Alexandre Guertin, from Ste-Julie, Québec, is the training scheduler for the Afghan National Police. Navy Lt. JoAnne Carter, from Ottawa, has an advisory role with the Afghan National Civil Order Police. Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Craig MacFadgen is from Dartmouth, N.S., and he advises senior non-commissioned officers in the Afghan National Army. The list goes on to include over 900 individual stories.
Through early November, poppies were worn on the desert camouflage uniforms of the Canadian troops. They gathered on Remembrance Day to share an inexplicable bond with all those who have chosen to wear the uniform. Two minutes of silence was followed by the sound of bagpipes drifting up towards the snowcapped mountains of the Hindu Kush. Across the country, wherever Canadians are serving – in Kabul, in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and in Herat in western Afghanistan, they remembered.
There is a walled protected corridor which leads into Camp Eggers. At one of the entryways into this corridor an Afghan guard has placed a large broken shard of a mirror. Its jagged angles look somewhat menacing as it sits propped on top the cement wall. Some of the reflective backing has flaked away and if you catch it at the right angle you can see where you’re going, and where you’ve been.
Like that mirror, the Canadians on parade in Afghanistan on Remembrance Day reflected on where Canada has been since Armistice Day in 1918. And like that mirror, Canadians here provided a glimpse of where we are going.
Sent from Kabul, Afghanistan
David Lewis is a Public Affairs Officer with the Royal Canadian Navy
