Postings from Afghanistan -- A Kandahar Journal -- Air cover

National Post ^ | 2007-07-15 | Richard Johnson

[Clive]

I am back at Kandahar Air Field (KAF), and back in the realms of the Public Affairs Officers, (PAFO) and their ever constant worries about Operational Security (OPSEC).

Too many acronyms (TMA).

The job of the PAFO, as seen from their perspective, is to make sure that absolutely nothing dangerous to soldiers lives is inadvertently given to the media, and then inadvertently released to the world. The job of the PAFO, from most journalist's perspective, is to make sure that an absolute minimum of information is given out, and slowly.

In KAF the PAFO also acts as the intermediary between any and all branches of Canadian or foreign military and the media. If you don't access them through the assigned PAFO channels, you simply don't get to access them. Take it or leave it.

Outside of KAF the PAFO's are fewer and farther between, and journalists are more free to approach individual soldiers. No buffer and no time-lag.

PAFO's come in two forms. Good and Bad.

A bad one can slow down your ability to respond to a breaking news situation. A bad one can limit your access so much as to leave you unable to do your job. A bad one can be completely obstructive to getting information certified by the military even though it may be readily available from other reliable sources.

Get yourself a good one, though, and it can make your job twice as easy and twice as interesting and your work twice as accurate.

When I arrived back into KAF I came ready with a number of possible story ideas in and around the base. I fired off an email to Major MacEachern the lead PAFO as soon as I could get my thoughts organized, and then stuck my hands in my pockets and waited. There was a lull day, and then the PAFO's started to come through for me.

First was Lieutenant (Navy) John Nethercott who got me access to the hospital and a potential medevac trip. He was the reason I managed to sketch Aziz and the nurses and all of the potential great art that has yet to produce. With the introduction complete I am now free to visit the hospital any time I fancy.

LIEUTENANT (NAVY) JOHN NETHERCOTT

Yesterday I returned to the hospital to see how Aziz was doing, and to sketch some of the other patients. Aziz looked hugely improved in the 48 hours since I had last seen him. He had had quite a few of the tubes that had hidden his nose and mouth removed and it was now possible to see his face. I drew him for a little while as he looked at me and eventually he dropped off to sleep. I had drawn his eyes first so I finished without him.

AZIZ

Next I sketched an Afghan Policeman who had been torn by shrapnel from an IED. All of one side of his face and body was covered in large and small puncture marks and his right eye looked completely devoid of life. Both of his eardrums had been ruptured and so he was completely deaf. He sat very well for me although in obvious discomfort. After I was done I showed him the sketch and he said in good english, "please do not use this as part of a joke". So I won't use it at all.

Next, I met Lieutenant Tara Sawchuk from Calgary. She was the nurse who had made the origami mobile for Aziz. She and I sat outside in the shade and chatted about Aziz while I drew her.

TARA LEIGH SAWCHUK

Still feeling a little directionless I headed back to the media hooch and was met by PAFO Captain Martell Thompson. He had sorted me out to go and spend a night with the guys who fly the Canadian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the Sperwer.

Timing is everything, and more by pure luck than good judgement the UAV was flying that night, and it was flying in support of an operation out of FOB MaSum Ghar. It would involve all of India Company and a great number of the soldiers I had been living and patrolling with for the last month at that FOB.

The night after I left MaSum Ghar it received, not one, not two, not three, but four missile strikes. No one was hurt thank goodness.

In the late evening Sergeant Ripley came over and picked me up and drove me out to the hangar. Most of the UAV launches happen at night.

I did my usual round of handshakes and received the obligatory distrusting glances from most of the soldiers.

The distrust of the media happens as soon as someone joins the military. It goes right along with all of the other equipment issued to the soldiers. With every new group of soldiers I meet I have to start from the bottom rung on the trust ladder. Some soldiers are easier than others of course, but for some the wall never comes down. In the past six weeks I have developed a bit of a sense for spotting one from the other, and If I sense someone has a real issue I leave them alone. They are all armed after all.

I met Captain Brett Banadyga, the media liaison for the group who was instantly open and helpful, and Captain Tom Lee an older soldier who I could tell was going to be a tougher nut to crack. I was given a quick tour of handshakes and then begged my way out to the hangars where the mechanics were working.

CORPORAL MICHAEL LEUDY AND CORPORAL BERT GAGNON

I had about three hours until launch, and so I got sketching in the hangar. They were all obviously busy so I left off the introductions and just started drawing. I worked solely on line drawing the vehicles themselves and the surrounding area, and took photos of the guys working at various corners, so I could draw them in later, already planning how the sketches would come together in my mind. The soldiers all thought it was pretty funny as in no short time the plane they were working on went from stripped down chassis to finished model, and I frantically adjusted my sketch as it morphed. The final laugh was when they rolled it out of the hangar and left me looking at an empty space. I had all I needed though and simply started another sketch when that one was gone. By the end of my three hours they had all come to look at the work and I had a list of names for portraits on another visit.

CORPORAL MIKE LEUDY

I had been given the all clear to stay and watch the mission unfold inside the command trailer. Just before I got in the trailer though I was told by Captain Banadyga that the offer had been rescinded and that I could only stay for the launch. I tried to keep the disappointed look off my face. He looked as disappointed as I felt. I gently made my case that I could very easily be out there on the ground with India Company on this operation and therefore what is it that they are worried about me seeing first hand?. I could tell he sympathized with my argument and agreed to give it another try with his superiors.

A little later on, I got a visit from the older Captain who looked like he had bad news for me, but in actual fact had come to say that he had talked to Major MacEachern the lead PAFO and had been given the all clear to allow me to watch the operation unfold, with the understanding that if things got really busy I would try and keep out of the way. He didn't look happy. Thank you Major MacEachern

The launch of the Sperwer is an incredibly violent thing. Originally designed for mobility in a war in Europe the Sperwer is launched from a mobile platform based on a truck chassis. A hydraulic gun explodes the plane into the air. A water brake at the end of the ramp stops the catapult so just as the plane clears the end of the ramp a second loud shock jets clouds of vapour into the air. Then there is only the noise of the small micro-lite engine and its four wooden propeller blades whining into the distance.

The control room for the flight is manned by four soldiers each with specific tasks. Captain Banadyga the media liaison commands the overall mission and handles all radio traffic from and to the soldiers on the ground. Bombardier Jim Aucoin is the pilot. Sergeant Andy Wright handles the camera. And Corporal Rheal Giroux is the intelligence officer. It is very cramped in there. There is one spot for me to stand in between the angle of the backs of two chairs.

With the UAV in the air Andy Wright gave me a test view of the optics and what they can do. The heat sensitive camera provided very detailed imagery, turning anything that retains heat from the daytime into a relief image that was very tough to distinguish from daylight itself. Andy pointed out different things along the way. That is an oil barrel, that is a person, an old tire, an animal. They all look like fuzzy blobs to me.

The flight to MaSum Ghar took about fifteen minutes. When we got there we flew in an arc around the base and kept our engine noise as far away as possible. I could see the base and recognized the terrain. The convoy of LAV's and RG-31's, obviously waiting for us to arrive, rolled out through the front gate. We watched the lead vehicles ford the Arghandab before we pulled the camera away and scanned ahead of their route. We looked for any danger signs.

There was a hot spot on one side of the road. Possibly an animal or someone with a cellphone trigger and an IED already planted. We gave the convoy commander the heads up and watched as the convoy rolled by unchallenged. Just an animal then.

We scanned ahead and I spotted some more landmarks. A strong point. Patrol Base Wilson (PBW). The Afghan National Police (ANP) station. From the UAV it all seemed so clear and straightforward. The convoy turned west at PBW along route one, and we looked farther ahead and periodically returned to make sure they had not stopped or turned off. We spotted a tractor trailer rig parked diagonally across both lanes of the highway. It looked like an obvious ambush to me, but apparently had been there for the last ten days.

Ten days!. This is one of the main highways across Kandahar Province and you can leave a tractor trailer rig abandoned in the middle of it for ten days?.

The convoy negotiated it's way past the rig. We saw no other vehicles on the road and very few people but continued to scan ahead. We looked hard at every compound and building. In the village of Howz-e-Madad the camera dwelt on every potential detail and danger spot. Then we returned to look at the convoy, only to find it had turned around and headed the other way. Then a bit of confusion as we realized it was only half the convoy. We turned again and found the missing vehicles parked north of the road in the desert. It then took relayed coordinates for us to track down the platoon of soldiers as they moved on foot through the villages and then out into the fields.

I recognized the call sign and the voice of the soldier on the ground. It was Captain Ryan Sheppard.

With the soldiers on foot and moving it was relatively easy to distinguish the patrol from everything around them. In these very early morning hours there was nobody around and no lights visible in any of the villages. We were still maintaining a distance between the UAV and the soldiers so as not to alert anyone with the engine's noise. Corporal Aucoin repeatedly called "turning" and the camera operator had to adjust to stay on target each time a turn was made. Aucoin also called out how many litres of fuel were available. About an hours worth remained.

The temperature inside the UAV command tent is kept constantly cold to keep all the computers functioning properly. I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and I quickly started to feel the chill. All I had to do was step outside to warm up but I didn't want to leave so to take my mind off it I got out my sketchbook and drew Sergeant Andy Wright, the camera operator.

Andy is a thirty year veteran of both the British and Canadian armies and has a great tattoo of a semi naked nymph on his left forearm.

SERGEANT ANDY WRIGHT

Back on screen the Canadian infantry had reached their patrol base,- an empty grape hut - and planned to hang out there until first light. The UAV spent it's remaining minutes overhead checking and rechecking every compound for km's around the patrol base grape hut. A single hot dot of a person appeared from a nearby village. We focussed on them as they walked and suddenly crouched. Was it someone crouching down in concealment monitoring the Canadians nearby or just someone toileting? As the plane swung across the sky the camera never left the hot spot. Eventually the figure stood and moved back inside leaving a tiny hot spot behind it on the ground. "Now that is high definition." said Corporal Giroux.

Captain Banadyga let Captain Sheppard on the ground know that we were going off station, but would be back before daylight. Till then they would be on their own. Fifteen minutes later we opened the door of the control room and I could see the lights of the UAV as it came towards us across the sky. At a designated spot the engine was shut off and a parachute deployed and slowly dropped the UAV to earth. Airbags under the wings and nose of the plane provided the final cushion. A truck then left the base to go and pick up the downed craft while the next UAV was being readied for takeoff.

When it is in the sky the Canadian UAV functions very well, but it's hang time over the target area is nowhere near long enough.

I sat outside with Sergeant Andy Wright between flights and he shared his lunch with me as we waited for the next launch. I was still feeling cold from my hours inside the trailer. He lent me a sweater and we chatted for a while. I learned from him that Toronto doesn't really get cold in the winter and that I should swing by Alberta some January. I put that on my list of things to do when I have less time.

An hour and a half after we left we were back over target. It was still before dawn so we started to study the interiors of all of the objectives the soldiers would sweep through tomorrow. Each compound was given a name. "Itchy". "Scratchy". "Snoopy". There are ten or twelve in total. I found a seat behind Captain Banadyga, and now warm in my sweater I sketched Bombardier Aucoin as he relaxed in the calm before the storm. He flew the plane using a mouse. Periodically adjusting it's heading casually and trying to keep it away from the main road and on station where we needed it. Every now and then Sergeant Wright would switch over to the daylight camera to see if there was enough light yet.

BOMBARDIER JIM AUCOIN

We waited for dawn.

Dawn in Afghanistan arrives suddenly. Something to do with Afghanistan's nearness to the equator or something. The next time Sergeant Wright switched cameras it was daylight out. The detail of what we are looking at improved dramatically. We could see the flank security soldiers crouched in the field around the grape hut. We could see civilians as they walked along the paths between the compounds. Captain Banadyga started to relay the locations of the people we could see to Captain Sheppard on the ground.

Along one stretch of tree lined wadi three or four people moved along, hidden from the grape hut by a wall. There was a little more radio chatter. I could hear Captain Sheppard again but not what he said

Then a voice on one of the bands said clearly "sniper has engaged."

This is where I was exposed for what I am; a city dwelling, lefty, liberal whiner. My first thought was "engaged? engaged whom? who are they shooting at". All I saw were civilians.

It is easy to fool oneself into being an expert on this war, just because I had hung around the soldiers for a while. But I don't know this war the way the Canadian soldiers do after five months fighting here.

I don't know anything at all. Nothing.

"RPG launch" said Corporal Rheal Giroux, on my left. The UAV camera is so powerful, that the jet of exhaust as the rocket left the launcher was clearly visible to us.

I was not looking at civilians I was looking at the Taliban.

This is the first time I have actually seen the enemy, aside from the wounded Taliban in the hospital.

I watched as two more men crossed the field behind the wall and joined the others. I next saw the smoke from their machine guns as they stood up behind the wall and fired at the Canadian position. Another RPG back-blast. Two more men approached across the field, and I realized I was looking at Taliban logistics. A supply line of rockets and ammo for their infantry.

We started to see more and more Taliban on the ground all along the wadi. More people than the UAV camera could track at any one time.

Lots more radio chatter back and forth. I could again hear Sheppard but not what he was saying. Sergeant Andy Wright asked if he could call in an artillery strike.

Three of the seven or eight men behind the wall started to make the run back across the field again.

A single white point of light bloomed where the remaining Taliban crouched against the wall. The explosion whited out the camera lens for a fraction of a second. Then we saw a roiling cloud of dust and debris and smoke as it blew outwards across the field enveloping the runners.

"Must have been a 500 pounder" someone said.

Amazingly two of the runners appeared from out of the smoke and ran to a grape field ditch. Sergeant Wright tracked them as they went. "Turning" said Aucoin. An expletive from Wright as the planes wing blocked the view. Captain Banadyga said "find them again" .

CAPTAIN BRETT BANADYGA

And this unfortunately is where my story on the inside of the UAV control room ends. Captain Lee came to the door and asked me to step outside.

I immediately acquiesced to his request.

I sat outside for an hour, watching the soldiers getting ready another UAV for launch, and hoping they would let me back in, but it was not to be. More than anything I was frustrated at not knowing what was happening to I-company on the ground.

Sergeant Ripley gave me a cigar and a resigned look as I sat waiting in the early morning sun. Eventually I bummed a lift back to the media tent.

I was back in the world of PAFO's and OPSEC.

It took fifteen hours for me to find out what had happened to India Company through a PAFO media briefing. There were no casualties. A total of eight 500 lb bombs were dropped by F-15's during the operation. An estimated fifteen Taliban were killed.

In the late evening of my 48-hour long day, Captain Banadyga swung by for a chat and a bit of a debrief. We talked for an hour or so about the mission and what had happened. He told me that I had not missed much after I had gone and that I had probably been allowed to see more than any journalist before me.

I spent the rest of the time asking him what I could or could not report on the operation. I didn't want to betray the trust that he had given.

r.

[Clive]

-

[Clive]

-

[fanfan]

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!