CF enjoying doing the job in Afstan

Two stories, with an Air Force focus (one almost never sees such articles about CF members in the Globe and Mail):

1) Afghan war zone presents career 'highlight' for Canadian soldiers going home

Working in a war zone is seldom considered a career highlight or opportunity - except perhaps for diplomats and humanitarian workers, and members of the Canadian Forces.

For many soldiers [well, not exactly in this piece] wrapping up their tour in Afghanistan and going back to their regular jobs will be a welcome relief but also a bit of a letdown.

But if you are a career soldier, going to war is something that you want to do at least once.

"Definitely the highlight of my career - there's no doubt about that, not at all," Maj. Darryl Adams, a Chinook pilot originally from Antigonish, N.S., said with a laugh.

The risks are worth it even if it comes with a bit of danger.

"That was my first time being shot at and I wondered how I would react and I didn't even think about it until it was all over. I'm not going out there looking for that much excitement," said Adams, who said he will be looking for a job on the ground within the next year.

His co-pilot, Capt. Nick Noel de Tilley, 35, from Gentilly, Que., joined the forces 10 years ago after working as a civilian pilot. He will be leaving the military and Canada once his stint is up in November. Noel de Tilley, his German wife Bettina and three children will be living in Germany.

Canadian chinook pilot Capt. Nicolas 'Nick' Noel de Tilly, of Gentilly, Que., poses for a photo at Kandahar Airfield. Capt. de Tilly will be leaving the forces in November after 10 years to spend more time with his family. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland

"It's going to be hard to be away and not care what's happening here so I'm going to make sure I keep listening to the news and make sure nothing's happening to the great guys I've met here," he said.

But he feels good about ending his military flying career in Afghanistan.

"It's pretty much at the top of what we can do in tactical helicopter flying...

But others stay in the military.

It's certainly not because of the glamour or the pay -often they could work in the private sector and make a lot more money. But many veterans have had the opportunity to be in numerous locales over the years.

Col. Danielle Savard, the commander of the Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Airfield, has also been in Bosnia and Eritrea during her 24-year career.

"It's nice to go back home," said Savard. "Myself I stayed in the forces."

"Every time I was wondering whether I wanted to stay or go they gave me a mission so I stayed. And if the missions don't come, then maybe it will be time to do something else."

As of February, Master Cpl. Dale Warren will have been in the military for 30 years. After a tour in the Persian Gulf in 1990 as part of Operation Desert Storm, and a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in 2004, he intends to continue with his military career.

"As long as I'm healthy and still enjoying it, I will stick with it," said Warren, a flight engineer who has worked on 13 different aircraft over the years, including F-18s, Auroras and the Labrador.

"It's definitely not the money that keeps me here because we're not really that well paid. I think I just take pride in my work and for 30 years I haven't crashed yet and that's a good sign."

2) Kandahar can-do for canada's military

After using the helicopters of allies to get Canadian troops around Afghanistan, Canada now has its own Chinook CH-147s to move our soldiers by air around the country.
Photograph by: Stefano Rellandini, Reuters, Calgary Herald
...
So, looking for bomb factories was what this mission--Operation Sanga Fist [March 7]-- 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...

"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 [details here, note the three Hercs assigned to the wing]. "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."..

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 [see the misleading Ottawa Citizen headline here].

"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...

...the Canadians have become so good that other countries make their participation in certain operations conditional on Canadians leading and flying...