Reality of War

Heroes Remember

Reality of War

Transcript

I think I have suppressed a lot because we have seen so much. You know you are that camera in the sky looking at everything and, you know, again like I said we worked with so many different units, so many different countries like even Special Forces guys came in and used us for some of their ops. And we were three weeks in. Right as soon as we got on the ground it was straight into operations. We didn’t have any workup training. We got qualified the equipment to go over and fly and that was basically it, there was no other training because the time crunch just didn’t allow it. So we got on the ground, straight into operations and we are constantly chatting with the, we cal it the TOC (tactical operation centre) and there’s a guy on the other side of the line there and we’re chatting back and forth what I’m seeing. I am telling him what I see. I am always constantly sending updates and he’s always providing the information or direction or whatever. There was a small group of individuals that were spotted in a field and they needed identification if they were farmers or if they were hostile. And with the heat and everything like that in a country like that it affects the camera so it’s not crystal clear image like you would see “drone imagery” on movies and stuff like that. So we’re doing our best to try and identify these guys. And before, I’m like half way typing my message they’re gone. It’s like a mist of bodies and stuff. So we zoomed out quite quickly just a kind of maybe we just lost them for a second but then you see things. You see the explosion and you see body parts landing and flying around and stuff like that so I just remember sitting there and I look over at my buddy and I go okay man this is the real deal. This is not Hollywood. This is not watching t.v. This is where we now need to be focused, vigilant and take this seriously. That was real early in the tour so that was the eye opener for me to say okay we need to be as professional at all times as much as we can.

Description

On the ground and straight to operations Warrant Officer Nowell shares a horrific experience where he witnessed an explosion through the camera soon realizing the real deal of war and serious implications that exist.

Cory Nowell

Mr. Cory Nowell was born in Prince George, BC in 1973. After high school Cory considered joining the military and at age 24 joined with the Artillery regiment presently known as 4th Artillery Regiment General Support. Cory took on the rank of warrant officer with his occupation of drone operator/mission commander. While training in the Arctic, 2008, Cory was given an opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan. Warrant Officer Nowell is a still serving member and currently located at the Royal Canadian Artillery School at CFB in Gagetown, N.B. With inspiration from friend and fellow comrade, Warrant Officer Nowell has been selected to be part of Team Canada for Invictus Games 2018 where he will travel to Austraila and compete in the games. He currently resides in Rusagonis, New Brunswick with his wife and family.

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