Like Losing a Family Member

In Kabul, I was the intelligence officer. I was the intelligence NCO for my unit there. There was no intelligence were operators injured or killed during my time in Kabul because like I mentioned we were building up our security presence at the time and it was sort of a slow process but there were Canadian casualties when we were on the ground there. Three or four people were killed, Canadians, directly targeted when I was there and I knew a couple of these guys that I had worked with before or I had friends who definitely knew. When I was in Kabul the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment was based in Camp Julian and I had several friends and I was very good, close with part of that unit and that unit was attacked and people were killed. They were ambushed; blown up with an IED and then the same occurred on a route that we used almost on a daily basis. A guy had attacked, again a Canadian convoy and blown himself up as a suicide bomber when our guys had gone by and that was tough to deal with because they were our people and General Leslie was very upset by that because we were in a position where there was very little we could do to counter that threat and the loss of those lives was…. it was palpable. It’s like losing a family member and it brings you closer and you have a resolve to make sure that what you do is going to be right and you’re going to do your job and you pray that it doesn’t happen to you.