Home from Afghanistan
David Lea
Published on
Mar 29, 2008
Driving rapidly through the crowded streets of Kabul, in an effort to avoid potential suicide bombers, is now just one of many memories held in the mind of an Oakville soldier, whose tour of duty in Afghanistan has finally come to an end.
Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Smith returned home on Monday, Jan. 14 after serving nine months in the war-torn country as a liaison officer between the Canadian/Coalition headquarters in Kandahar and the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul.
During this time, the former T.A. Blakelock Secondary School student saw his daughter Captain Stephanie Smith working to save lives in a Kandahar hospital, bore witness to the shredded remains of a Canadian LAV III, after its encounter with an insurgent Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and experienced a host of other events both great and terrible.
Throughout all of this, Smith maintained his belief that what Canada is doing in Afghanistan is right and a difference is being made.
"Our country's efforts in Afghanistan are contributing significantly to the overall consolidation of peace and the improvement of human security in the region," said Smith.
"Canadian operations in Afghanistan will continue to help improve the quality of life for the Afghan people and to ensure that the progress made is sustainable."
The final leg of Smith's Afghan odyssey began on Monday, Oct. 29 when he boarded a plane for Kandahar, after enjoying a brief leave in Oakville.
The first time Smith made this trip he recalled being filled with apprehension at what lay ahead.
This time, with just three months left until the end of his tour, the experience of leaving home was still not an easy one.
"What you find is it's like stepping back into a blender," said Smith. "The pace of operations is very high and hectic, with long days and lots of challenges."
Smith was presented with these challenges immediately after his arrival in Kandahar where his fellow soldiers and their NATO allies were in the process of beating back a Taliban offensive that had taken control of the Arghandab District, which is just 25 kilometres from Kandahar City.
The Taliban would eventually withdraw after three days of fierce fighting.
"It's still a very dangerous place," said Smith.
"You're well trained to do your job and after doing it for six months, I knew exactly what I was getting into when I came back in October."
Another aspect of life in Afghanistan that Smith was more prepared to deal with were the sporadic Taliban rocket attacks on the Kandahar Airfield base where Smith was called to work from time to time.
While potentially lethal, the rockets are just one of the things soldiers on the base almost get used to, although the very mention of them was enough to disturb a group of replacements Smith was helping to train.
"It's not that it's routine and you don't become desensitized to it," said Smith. "As time goes by you get a better comprehension of all that's going on."
As the two groups with which Smith was required to liaise, were at completely different ends of the country, Smith would travel by air back and forth.
It was through these trips that he truly gained an understanding of the diverse terrain with which Canadian soldiers have to contend when undertaking operations.
Far from seeing only desert, Smith's flights between Kabul and Kandahar revealed flowing rivers feeding lush, green valleys, while in other places, snow-capped mountains stretched into the sky, making certain parts of the country accessible only by a single road.
Smith noted terrain like this has caused problems for Canadian soldiers in the past because the Taliban can easily mine that single road and set up ambushes.
When the plane touched down in Kabul, Smith would have to endure one experience he never get used to, which was the journey he would have to make from Kabul International Airport to ISAF headquarters about 15-20 minutes away.
"It doesn't change," said Smith, who had previously noted that this trip scared the living daylights out of him.
As Kabul is a city of millions Smith's vehicle had to drive through streets lined with thousands of people.
In a city where the insurgency is still ever present, a threat could come from anywhere.
"Our briefer would say that between here and ISAF headquarters there are three suicide bombers so be on the lookout for this, this and this. I can tell you that the people in that vehicle were like raccoons looking everywhere for anything matching the description we were given," said Smith.
"When you're in those kinds of situations it really increases what we call the pucker factor."
Smith's concern was not unwarranted as he had a few close calls during this period.
"I was very close to a couple of IEDs," he said."My vehicle would come by a place where one had gone off only a couple of minutes before. You see a vehicle flipped over and you see 'stuff' just blown all over the walls. We have armoured vehicles to protect us, but when one of those things goes off, the civilians are just blown to pieces."
Seeing such gruesome spectacles was another aspect of Afghanistan Smith said he never got used to.
"It never gets easy doing a ramp (funeral) ceremony, it never gets easy seeing a young Afghan child who's been injured because they were playing with a landmine," he said.
"In a lot of ways, the Afghans have been desensitized to this because throughout their lives they've seen nothing but this."
Despite this chaos, Smith remains adamant that it can all be overcome and went on to point out some of the breakthroughs that have been made since the fall of the Taliban.
Smith noted that with Canada's assistance, 63,000 former combatants have been disarmed and demobilized while 88 per cent of these have been taught new skills to facilitate reintegration back into their communities.
Nearly 80,000 light weapons have been collected and, with Canada's help, 334,000 landmines have been removed.
These and other de-mining activities have helped to achieve a 55 per cent decline in the monthly average number of landmine victims since 2001.
In the area of education and healthcare, Smith also saw great achievements.
"In 2001, 1.2 million children attended school, in 2007 six million children, more than one third of whom are girls, are back in school," said Smith.
"Canada has also assisted in the immunization of more than seven million Afghan children as part of a polio eradication initiative. In 2001, only eight per cent of Afghans had access to healthcare and that figure now stands at 80 per cent. Infant mortality has been more than halved."
As a flurry of aid, development and security missions came and went, so too did Smith's remaining time in Afghanistan.
Before long it was Christmas, which Smith described as a very interesting experience in Kabul.
"Operations have to continue 365 days a year, 24 hours a day," said Smith.
"On Christmas Eve, I was working in the Combined Joint Operations Centre until midnight, as I did on New Year's Eve."
While the work had to continue, Smith said efforts were made to provide soldiers with as much of a sense of home as possible, which included the setting up of decorations and Christmas trees in some areas.
Other comforts came from the Canadian public who sent the soldiers stationed throughout Afghanistan an overwhelming amount of letters, gifts and Christmas cards.
"That makes a huge difference to the soldiers because it is quite traumatic to be away from your family during the holiday season," said Smith.
Facilities that permitted soldiers to phone and email home also helped to make Christmas in Kabul a little easier.
Finally, in mid-January, Smith's work in Afghanistan was over.
The last three months of his tour had seen significant developments including the arrival of the Manley Commission, an independent commission created by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to advise on Canada's future involvement in Afghanistan.
"They not only talked with people at the highest level in Kabul, dealing with the ambassador, the international aid agencies and the heads of various ministries in Afghanistan, but they went to the provincial level and dealt with the Afghan public, dealt with serving soldiers and more," said Smith.
"They came in with their eyes open, they knew their numbers and the issues before they got there and I had the opportunity, as a number of us did in Kabul, to talk with the Manley team. They were very concerned that they do their job to the best of their ability."
The Manley Commission would recommend that Canada essentially stay the course in Afghanistan.
Another major incident that occurred during the final stretch of Smith's tour was the assassination of Pakistani Opposition Party Leader Benazir Bhutto, a development Smith and others kept a very close eye on as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Pakistan at the time of the assassination.
"Operations in Afghanistan are influenced by what is going on in surrounding countries in the same manner that Canada is influenced by what happens in the United States," said Smith. "It would be naïve to not be aware of what's going on and to not take certain prudent and precautionary measures."
With his tour now over, Smith has returned to Oakville where he intends to stay put for a while and work on the marriage he and his wife Carolyn Petersen began just before Smith left for Afghanistan nine months ago.
For Smith, his time in Afghanistan has been life altering.
"It's been a wonderful experience. There's been good times, bad times, sad times, happy times," he said. "The time really did fly by because I was so busy and it went so fast in my case that I was leaving the next morning for good and I was running around working the night before and I still hadn't packed."
As far as the controversy surrounding Canada's presence in Afghanistan is concerned, Smith asks that people need to remember that while Canada has paid a heavy price, the gains made have been great.
"The government's ability to deal with its people is improving, reconstruction and development is happening, the development of an Afghan security force in the form of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police is improving and it's improving day by day," said Smith.
"Is it happening as fast as everyone would like? Maybe. Maybe not. I think we in the west live in an immediate gratification society. We want to see things happen just like that, but we have to remember that we are dealing with a country that has been devastated by more than 30 years of war and conflict."
With his nine-month tour behind him, Smith is doubtful he will be called on for a second, given he is approaching the age where mandatory retirement from the Canadian Forces is required.
Having said that, Smith is not ruling out the possibility that he would return, if asked.
"Never say never," he said.