Looking forward through the mirror By Sub-Lt. David Lewis, Public Affairs Officer, Kabul, NATO Training Mission Afghanistan The red maple leaf flutters casually in the crisp, cold morning breeze. Surrounded on all sides by dramatic snow-capped mountains, the scene could easily be Banff or Whistler. Its only when you follow the flagpole down, and see the military vehicles parked nearby, that you realize youre in Kabul, Afghanistan. The 920 members of the Canadian Forces contribution to the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan no doubt appreciate this weather more than some of the coalition soldiers from sunnier climates. The brisk, frosty morning inspires a street hockey game on the main thoroughfare of Camp Eggers, located in downtown Kabul. The familiar clatter of hockey sticks is interrupted by the nostalgic call of car. The nets are pulled aside and a convoy of armoured vehicles passes the small cluster of Gretzkys and Yzermans. The morning exercise is soon over and each player heads off to do their part in the NATO mission advising Afghan National Security Forces. Lt Alexandre Guertin is from Ste-Julie, Québec is the training scheduler for the Afghan National Police. Navy Lt. JoAnne Carter, from Ottawa, has an advisory role with the Afghan National Civil Order Police. Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Craig MacFadgen is from Dartmouth, N.S. and he advises senior non-commissioned officers in the ANA. The list goes on to include over 900 individual stories. Through early November, poppies were worn on the desert camouflage uniforms of the Canadian troops. They gathered on Remembrance Day to share an inexplicable bond with all those who have chosen to wear the uniform. Two minutes of silence was be followed by the sound of bagpipes drifting up towards the snowcapped mountains of the Hindu Kush. Across the country, wherever Canadians are serving in Kabul, in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and in Herat in western Afghanistan, they remembered. There is a walled protected corridor which leads into Camp Eggers. At one of the entryways into this corridor an Afghan guard has placed a large broken shard of a mirror. Its jagged angles look somewhat menacing as it sits propped on top the cement wall. Some of the reflective backing has flaked away and if you catch it at the right angle you can see where youre going, and where youve been. Like that mirror, the Canadians on parade in Afghanistan on Remembrance Day reflected on where Canada has been since Armistice Day in 1918. And like that mirror, Canadians here provided a glimpse of where we are going.
