The Torch: "Freedom 'worth fighting for'": Three years later

This is the start of a post of April 6, 2006, shortly after The Torch was started; it was based on an Ottawa Sun column by Earl McRae:

Portrait of a Canadian soldier

Please read this story about a 43 year-old British immigrant (ex-RN) preparing to serve in Afstan as an engineer private. And congratulations to The Brick for being truly a brick.

Stand up and applaud Pte. Jed Stone, serial number N88103401, 3rd Field Engineers Squadron, Canadian Army Reserves...

Jed Stone, 43, furniture consultant at The Brick store on Cyrville Rd. [Ottawa], and while you're applauding Jed Stone, applaud The Brick for promising Jed Stone that while he'll lose his salary for the times he's away, his full-time job will be waiting for him when he gets back from the ultimate fulfilment of his mission in life: Combat duty in Afghanistan with his fellow Canadian soldiers...

Mr Stone in now back from Afstan, and bless Mr McRae for following up:

Freedom 'worth fighting for'
Jed Stone defied the odds, serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan at the age of 45

"If something happens to me over there, I still would have no regrets for doing it."

Jed Stone, Sept. 5, 2008

He meant wounded. He meant killed. He wasn't. Jed Stone has come home from the war, and he has no regrets for doing it. But something happens to them all. No soldier returns from war unchanged. If they're lucky, they might look the same, sound the same. It is an illusion. The aftermath of war for the lucky is one of interiors. Recesses of the mind where the changes have happened. Changes that will reside for a lifetime.

Jed Stone, wearing his camouflage battle dress from the war, sits across from me in the restaurant, his magnificent contribution to freedom's cause over now, and, choosing to leave the Army in two weeks, he knows that whatever he chooses to do on civvy street, life's colour will be forever beige in comparison.

Jed Stone is different from the Jed Stone I spoke to last fall on the eve of his dream's fulfillment: A tour of duty in Afghanistan as Cpl. Jed Stone, 33 Combat Engineer Regiment, the Canadian Army. A dream that, when he first mentioned it to me three years ago, seemed, to me, a dream impossible...

...last autumn, on an aircraft with soldiers young enough to be his sons and daughters, Jed Stone, a picture of his wife Lila next to his heart, flew from Trenton to Afghanistan in the name of Canada, freedom, and something he just had to do. His salary: $6,000 a month, $2,500 of it danger pay.

Within days, death nearly claimed him. "We were patrolling in a field of poppies when I felt this terrible sting on my right hand. I thought it was one of the bees over there. They're huge." He spreads his thumb and forefinger about four inches apart. "We call them Taliban Bees." It was a scorpion. He was evacuated to base hospital, the poison quickly shooting up his arm, heading to his throat. His hand shook violently, his arm swelled.

"I came close to dying. My throat would've closed up."

Seven days later, he was back in action, the assignment he wanted: A forward observation base (FOB) "outside the wire of Khandahar" in dangerous Taliban territory, patrolling for landmines (IEDs), defusing them.

"We had detectors that would go off if there was an IED. There was a lot of buried metal debris over there that wasn't IEDs -- shrapnel and stuff -- but the IED's detection sound is different. We're trained to know it. There were dogs, too, trained dogs we sometimes had that would suddenly sit down if they sniffed the ingredients in an IED. Then we'd very gently clear the dirt away with our hands to find the landmine. We'd blow it up remotely."

He pauses. "I can't say enough about our young soldiers. The men, and the women. They are so good. They are so dedicated to the mission. Think about it. They are mostly in their early 20s, and they chose the military. Putting their young lives at risk, fighting for freedom. They could have chosen a civilian life, doing what kids their ages do with friends, going to parties, having fun, but they didn't."

His eyes moisten. "They've seen more in six months than the average person sees in a lifetime." A smile. "Because I was far older than they were, they'd take the mickey out of me. They called me Old Balls."

Several times Jed Stone and his buddies engaged the Taliban in firefights. "It's strange, but in a firefight, you don't feel fear. You don't have time. It's all adrenaline and training and resolve. Canadian soldiers are the best in the world. Soldiers there from other countries, and that includes the Americans and the Brits, look up to us. They have the highest respect for our training, ability, and character. They'd often ask us for advice."

Stone's unit, The Wolfpack, took some prisoners. "One Taliban guy we caught, he cried like a baby begging for mercy. Yet the same bastard would cut your head off if he had the chance. They don't value human life at all."

Stone knew personally some of the Canadian soldiers recently killed by exploding IEDs. "One of them, just a kid, we all loved him. He was always upbeat and funny. Some of the guys, they'd sat down to rest against a wall. One of them, when he went to get up, he put his hand on the ground and the landmine underneath exploded.

"Our Afghan interpreter got killed, too. He'd be with us in the villages when we were talking to the people, trying to win their trust. Giving chocolate bars to the kids. He was a great, young guy. We loved him. He was educated and he loved the Canadians. He was glad what we were doing for his country. We took up a collection and gave the money to his family. He didn't tell them what his job was. If the Taliban had found out, they'd be murdered."

Jed Stone went to war believing the Taliban could and should be defeated militarily. Not now. "I personally believe they can't be overcome by just military means. The adult generation who are poor and uneducated are prime recruits to the insurgents with the promise of narcotics to harvest and sell.

"The average Afghan is manipulated into accepting that the philosophy and spiritual guidance of the Taliban is their only course. The youth of Afghanistan is the key to eventual democracy, shaping the minds of the current generation of children.

"Military means cannot achieve this aim by itself, but it is an important component to create the atmosphere of dialogue. Appeasement in this region is viewed as weakness. The Taliban are patient and are well aware that the resolve of the world could break.

"At some point we'll negotiate with this heinous cult of misguided people to break the stalemate, but from a position of strength and determination. In the educated north, people have a more positive resolve to solve their country's problems. Abandonment is not an option.

"The insurgents are dedicated, and manipulating any and all situations that can keep them in power. Freedom is always worth fighting for, and I hope the politicians and Canadian people do not forget the constant suffering of the Afghan people, and the soldiers that have paid with their lives in the search for peace."

Well put, Jed Stone; and welcome home, thank you, and happy birthday -- you who've lived 46 years of freedom today.

CONTACT MCRAE AT EARL.MCRAE@SUNMEDIA.CA OR LEAVE A MESSAGE AT 613-739-5133, EXT. 469.