bobdina
10-07-2009, 01:29 PM
You could see your breath in the cool air, for the sun was still not up. Accompanied by U.S. and Afghan forces, 200 members of the Royal Canadian Regiment stormed into a small village in Zhari District in the wee, small hours of March 7 this year.
After a night-ride from Kandahar, surprise was complete: In counter-insurgency operations, just dropping-in is the best way to arrive.
Zhari is that fertile area along the north bank of the Arghandab River, where the Afghans grow grapes of astonishing taste, size and quality. (And, it must be said, marijuana and poppies.) The landscape is attractive — low, packed-mud houses, amid lush greenery.
But, it is a dangerous place to be for Canadian troops: Here and there stand tall, thick-walled, grape-drying huts, sometimes used as cover by Taliban snipers (until their vulnerability to a 120-mm shell was revealed by the arrival of Canada’s Leopard 2 tanks.) Meanwhile, its unmade roads and tracks are easy to mine, and Pakistan — the ready source of bomb-making materials — isn’t that far away. Many of the young Canadians killed and wounded in Afghanistan have been victims of roadside bombs, properly known as Improvised Explosive Devices, in that very area.
So, looking for bomb factories was what this mission — Operation Sanga Fist — was about. But, as air force Col. Chris Coates has been explaining around Calgary this month, what made it different was that it was the day Canada got back its own air-assault capability. Instead of the lengthy, dangerous drive upcountry, Canadian troops were flown by Canadian crews, aboard a Canadian helicopter, directly into combat. In this case, it took just 20 minutes: And, there were no losses to IEDs.
Indeed, as it turned out, there were no losses at all that day. Young Afghan men watched from a distance, but if they were Taliban — a reasonable bet there — they did not interfere as Canadians spent the day searching suspicious compounds. (Some weapons and bomb-making materials were found.)
"That was a big day though," says Calgarian Coates, a one-time air cadet in 781 Squadron, and a University of Calgary grad who has lately returned from a tour as Commander of the JTF-Afghanistan Air Wing, in Kandahar. "The guys were really pumped about the fact they’d been set down just 200 metres from the objective. They were giving each other high-fives when they got back, some were saying it was the experience of a lifetime."
Helicopters have been around for decades. So in this day and age, and with the iconic Ride of the Valkyries footage in Apocalypse so familiar that even people who hate war movies know it, one wouldn’t think air assault should be such a novelty. And the truth is, it really isn’t, even for Canada.
But, during the Canadian Forces’ winter-of-discontent in the 1990s, the government of the day sold the eight CH-47C Chinooks Canada had, to the Dutch.
And that, for 17 years, was that. As the years went by, people who flew and worked on them retired, stores and manuals were sold off, the army had to get used to smaller helicopters, and Canada lost the Chinook habit.
The story here is the remarkable air force achievement of relearning it in just a few months. As Coates says, the army has done a spectacular job in Afghanistan and deserves all the credit it gets: "However, let me tell you about the air element."
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley to study what Canada was doing in Afghanistan. In February 2008, Manley said, among other things, that there was a critical need for helicopters to avoid landmines: Get some.
But, that’s not just a matter of heading down to the lot.
Under pressure, procedures were trimmed, risks were balanced. In the understated language of the military, "significant challenges were overcome in a short time."
What does that really mean?
The first achievement was even to fund and find half a dozen helicopters. In the end, Ottawa did an as-is, where-is deal with the Yanks, for one CH-147D at Kandahar and another five at Bagram.
Then, it was a matter of qualifying pilots, mechanics, and refitting the well-used machines.
"They were not bad, for American helicopters," says Coates. "But, the Americans tend to drive their equipment hard, then just ship it home for major maintenance, so they get a bit rough. We have to do all that work in theatre."
The first Chinook went into Canadian service a few days after Christmas last year, in the astonishingly short time of less than 10 months from Manley’s dictum. Just 10 weeks after that, Canadian Chinooks were taking Canadians into battle.
"It was an amazing achievement," says Coates.
Now, air assault is routine for Canada. Or almost: "We had to do a little marketing with the army, rebuild their helicopter habit after all those years. But now, they’re really starting to get it."
So are other nations: The Canadians have become so good that other countries make their participation in certain operations conditional on Canadians leading and flying.
The air force has actually been in Afghanistan from the start, running Hercules transports, and the light Griffon helicopters. But, those were support roles — vital, but not all an air force is capable of.
Now, Canada’s airmen are running the Heron reconnaissance drone, with its highly advanced capabilities to spy on the enemy, after which the Chinooks can put Canada’s soldiers where they need to be. It is a highly integrated operation, and all-Canadian: "Our allies are good people, but there’s a lot to be said for Canadians working with other Canadians," says Coates.
His story is a familiar one: Fighting soldiers sent into a situation, told to make the best of it, and going per ardua, far beyond what it was reasonable to ask.
Sometimes, I wonder if they aren’t too good at doing that for their own good: It tempts politicians to take chances, reckoning the chaps will sort it out on the day.
But, that’s another discussion. For now, Coates has quite a tale to tell about what Canadian airmen can do, and it’s worth a round of applause.
http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/hannaford/archive/2009/10/02/kandahar-can-do-in-canada-s-air-force.aspx
After a night-ride from Kandahar, surprise was complete: In counter-insurgency operations, just dropping-in is the best way to arrive.
Zhari is that fertile area along the north bank of the Arghandab River, where the Afghans grow grapes of astonishing taste, size and quality. (And, it must be said, marijuana and poppies.) The landscape is attractive — low, packed-mud houses, amid lush greenery.
But, it is a dangerous place to be for Canadian troops: Here and there stand tall, thick-walled, grape-drying huts, sometimes used as cover by Taliban snipers (until their vulnerability to a 120-mm shell was revealed by the arrival of Canada’s Leopard 2 tanks.) Meanwhile, its unmade roads and tracks are easy to mine, and Pakistan — the ready source of bomb-making materials — isn’t that far away. Many of the young Canadians killed and wounded in Afghanistan have been victims of roadside bombs, properly known as Improvised Explosive Devices, in that very area.
So, looking for bomb factories was what this mission — Operation Sanga Fist — was about. But, as air force Col. Chris Coates has been explaining around Calgary this month, what made it different was that it was the day Canada got back its own air-assault capability. Instead of the lengthy, dangerous drive upcountry, Canadian troops were flown by Canadian crews, aboard a Canadian helicopter, directly into combat. In this case, it took just 20 minutes: And, there were no losses to IEDs.
Indeed, as it turned out, there were no losses at all that day. Young Afghan men watched from a distance, but if they were Taliban — a reasonable bet there — they did not interfere as Canadians spent the day searching suspicious compounds. (Some weapons and bomb-making materials were found.)
"That was a big day though," says Calgarian Coates, a one-time air cadet in 781 Squadron, and a University of Calgary grad who has lately returned from a tour as Commander of the JTF-Afghanistan Air Wing, in Kandahar. "The guys were really pumped about the fact they’d been set down just 200 metres from the objective. They were giving each other high-fives when they got back, some were saying it was the experience of a lifetime."
Helicopters have been around for decades. So in this day and age, and with the iconic Ride of the Valkyries footage in Apocalypse so familiar that even people who hate war movies know it, one wouldn’t think air assault should be such a novelty. And the truth is, it really isn’t, even for Canada.
But, during the Canadian Forces’ winter-of-discontent in the 1990s, the government of the day sold the eight CH-47C Chinooks Canada had, to the Dutch.
And that, for 17 years, was that. As the years went by, people who flew and worked on them retired, stores and manuals were sold off, the army had to get used to smaller helicopters, and Canada lost the Chinook habit.
The story here is the remarkable air force achievement of relearning it in just a few months. As Coates says, the army has done a spectacular job in Afghanistan and deserves all the credit it gets: "However, let me tell you about the air element."
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley to study what Canada was doing in Afghanistan. In February 2008, Manley said, among other things, that there was a critical need for helicopters to avoid landmines: Get some.
But, that’s not just a matter of heading down to the lot.
Under pressure, procedures were trimmed, risks were balanced. In the understated language of the military, "significant challenges were overcome in a short time."
What does that really mean?
The first achievement was even to fund and find half a dozen helicopters. In the end, Ottawa did an as-is, where-is deal with the Yanks, for one CH-147D at Kandahar and another five at Bagram.
Then, it was a matter of qualifying pilots, mechanics, and refitting the well-used machines.
"They were not bad, for American helicopters," says Coates. "But, the Americans tend to drive their equipment hard, then just ship it home for major maintenance, so they get a bit rough. We have to do all that work in theatre."
The first Chinook went into Canadian service a few days after Christmas last year, in the astonishingly short time of less than 10 months from Manley’s dictum. Just 10 weeks after that, Canadian Chinooks were taking Canadians into battle.
"It was an amazing achievement," says Coates.
Now, air assault is routine for Canada. Or almost: "We had to do a little marketing with the army, rebuild their helicopter habit after all those years. But now, they’re really starting to get it."
So are other nations: The Canadians have become so good that other countries make their participation in certain operations conditional on Canadians leading and flying.
The air force has actually been in Afghanistan from the start, running Hercules transports, and the light Griffon helicopters. But, those were support roles — vital, but not all an air force is capable of.
Now, Canada’s airmen are running the Heron reconnaissance drone, with its highly advanced capabilities to spy on the enemy, after which the Chinooks can put Canada’s soldiers where they need to be. It is a highly integrated operation, and all-Canadian: "Our allies are good people, but there’s a lot to be said for Canadians working with other Canadians," says Coates.
His story is a familiar one: Fighting soldiers sent into a situation, told to make the best of it, and going per ardua, far beyond what it was reasonable to ask.
Sometimes, I wonder if they aren’t too good at doing that for their own good: It tempts politicians to take chances, reckoning the chaps will sort it out on the day.
But, that’s another discussion. For now, Coates has quite a tale to tell about what Canadian airmen can do, and it’s worth a round of applause.
http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/hannaford/archive/2009/10/02/kandahar-can-do-in-canada-s-air-force.aspx