Posted on 08/04/2005 2:23:24 PM PDT by Clive
KABUL (CP) - Camp Julien, home to the majority of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan over the past two years, will soon be gone. The camp, on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, is being torn down, and will close in less than four months.
Originally built in early 2003, and opened in August of that year, it was designed to house up to 2,000 soldiers.
Now, roughly 700 Canadian soldiers and civilian support staff live at the base at any given time. In the coming months, they will complete the base closure, which is scheduled for Dec. 1.
The camp is also currently home to troops from Norway, Hungary, the United States, Turkey and Italy, who were given notice July 1 that they must vacate.
The decision to close the base was made in Ottawa in May, after the federal government decided to move Canada's military focus in Afghanistan to Kandahar, where a provincial reconstruction team is being established.
The team, made up of 250 soldiers, two RCMP officers and members of Canada's foreign affairs and international aid departments, will work with other NATO countries to secure the Kandahar region and attempt to rebuild some of its infrastructure.
By February, Canada also plans to send an additional 1,500 soldiers to set up a brigade headquarters and army task force in Kandahar.
Most of Camp Julien remains intact and will continue to operate until after Sept. 18, when national elections are scheduled to be held.
"In about the last six weeks, we've taken down 30 tents," said Lt.-Col. Paul Davies, a military engineer who has overseen the beginnings of the teardown.
"We've sent 90 vehicles to Kandahar, 100 sea cans and miscellaneous pallets and truckloads of material and construction supplies, wire, concrete barriers."
"It's been pretty impressive, actually, the amount of work and the amount of stuff that we've packed up and shipped out of here."
And the job isn't nearly over yet. Dozens more tents and hundreds of tonnes of supplies and vehicles will have to be moved, not to mention the soldiers.
"They've got to get all of these tents down, packed up and out of here," said Davies.
"And you can't do that until you start getting people out of here."
"The actual taking the tents down is easy. It's when do we take it down, and what are we doing with it when we have it down that's the hard part."
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier has said recently that Canada will likely never again build a base as elaborate, expensive and confined as Camp Julien. Davies doesn't think the camp is elaborate - just very well put together.
"Our standard, as far as a camp goes, is much higher than most other nations," he said.
"We have the cleanest camp; we have the cleanest washrooms; we have the best water."
"That's just the way we are."
Canada unsuccessfully tried to sell the camp to other NATO countries operating in Afghanistan. A water purification plant, which supplies fresh bottled drinking water to the soldiers, may be the only thing NATO will take over once Canada leaves the area for good. But even that hasn't been decided.
It's no real surprise that other nations didn't choose to make Camp Julien their home, said Davies.
"I'm surprised that nobody wanted to come in here," he said.
"But then, we're a little off the beaten path as well," Davies added.
"All of the other camps are at the other end of town. It takes a long time to get anywhere from here, especially to the airport."
There will still be a handful of Canadian soldiers in Kabul after Camp Julien is gone, said outgoing camp commander Col. Walter Semianiw, who is being promoted next week and will take command of the Canadian Forces college in Toronto.
"There will be 50 (Canadian) soldiers remaining here in very senior level positions to continue to influence the process," he pointed out.
"We're not leaving Kabul."
A number of officers will remain at the NATO command centre, involved in strategic planning for the country.
As well, a number of military personnel will continue to work at ISAF headquarters, as well as the National Training Centre detachment, which has become a national training institution for Afghanistan.
There won't be many sad faces once Camp Julien closes, Davies predicted, looking back on the Canadian military's accomplishments from its main launching pad in Kabul.
"We've got a short history here of two years," he said.
"I don't think anybody will be shedding a tear when the place closes out because it marks our movement down to Kandahar for a different mission and continued support to the (Afghan) government."
"Everybody who's been here is leaving with a sense of pride and achievement."
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Ping.
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