On 11 September 2008 I departed Trenton for Kandahar, a fitting end, to a year of predeployment training with TF 3-08. My final destination was Camp Nathan Smith (CNS), the home of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT) Canada’s main redevelopment effort in Afghanistan. The year long journey including significant time in Petawawa, four weeks at Fort Bliss in Texas, a long, cold, and arguably pointless month at CMTC in Wainwright, an equal amount of time at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and several weeks at CFB Gagetown. The training heading into this deployment was more extensive then my prior experience heading into Kabul in 2004, and rightfully so. Mounted operations, instinctive shooting, and dismounted patrolling, were the topics of focus in preparation for what ended up being an eightmonth tour with the KPRT Force Protection Company (FP Coy). The FP Coy was headed up by Golf Company of 2RCR and was augmented by a reserve platoon made up of soldiers from across LFCA. Our role within the company was two-fold, securing CNS, and maintaining a patrolling capability in order to sustain KPRT operations on foot or mounted in RG-31’s. My role within the platoon was that of a section 2IC. We basically hit the ground running. On 13 September I arrived at CNS and after some in-clearance found myself in an RG-31 (for the first time ever) serving as the crew commander. Over the next few days as the rest of the platoon rotated in, we quickly took over from the outgoing platoon and got into the full swing of our operations. Our patrols were general focused on supporting other organizations, which from an infantry perspective took some getting used to. Our job was basically to enable other organizations such as CIMIC, the Specialist Engineer Team (SET), the RCMP helping train the Afghan police (ANP), and the civilian aid and development workers to do their job. Our typical patrol would involve taking one or more of the above-mentioned organizations to their objective site, securing it and holding it as they completed their tasks. These tasks would include anything from key leader engagements, meetings with the Governor, visits to police stations, various government installation, and inspections of reconstruction projects and surveying post blast damage, to name a few.
In conjunction with the so-called “routine” patrols we conducted presence patrols to
maintain a foot hold in the vicinity of CNS, and to bolster the ANP throughout the city. These
patrols would consist of mounted operations, dismounted operations, or a combination of both.
The dismounted operations in the city gave a unique perspective into the extreme levels of destitute
the Afghans live.
The deployment as a whole was a positive experience despite several long stretches of
very long days coupled with extreme conditions (yes it gets cold there too!). The nature of our
platoon’s task resulted in extensive juggling of personnel, which made my job particularly interesting,
as I tried to balance various tasks at once. In the same light, the constant juggling generated
various opportunities as well; be it the back filling of a LAV-III, commanding mounted
patrols, or leading a column through the narrow streets of Kandahar from the front seat of an
RG-31. The year of pre-deployment training in its own right offered new experiences and development
opportunities, however that experience is unparalleled by the time I spent in Kandahar,
regardless of how miserable it was at the time. Undoubtedly the whole ordeal is one of the
most memorable experiences I have endured as a soldier.
-Lorne Scots
English