DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN
Hi there from sunny, hot, dusty and now wet Kandahar Air Field Afghanistan. We are the Linemen of Task Force Afghanistan ROTO 2. Our tour has been flying by with us making the most of it by sharing laughter, hardships and lots of work.
The crew was put together for this tour at the last minute. Most of us only found out that we would be deployed a month before we got on the plane. At first there we only 2 LMN due to deploy, now looking at how busy us 9 are having only 2 would have been a disaster. Many of us are quite new to the trade and met for the first time at the fishing derby in Petawawa last July. The derby was a great gathering of the Clan 052. Hope to see you there next year.
Since arriving in Afghanistan, we have had some hair-raising situations. The day we got off the plane in Mirage it was 72d Celsius on the tarmac. Walking around with your full “battle rattle” just sucked. Some people actually passed out from the heat.
One day we were working with the American LMN on a pole line project from the MDF to the Ammo Compound. The whole route was about 2 Km and a combination of pole line and buried cable. A dig permit was of course required and obtained. We had to construct the pole route, trench in the cable, install 12 fiber and than splice the fibre into an existing 96 US fiber cable that was running under the airfield.
Before we started digging the holes and the trench, we decided to move the poles closer to their location were they were to be planted, so we borrowed the crane from the Americans to manoeuvre the poles and after we placed the fifth pole on the ground, one of us noticed that the crane was gushing oil everywhere. After that we decided to call it a day and put the project on hold until we acquired all of the signatures to dig. Once we had all of the signatures we went at the project full tilt. Just after starting to dig the first hole an American Major came out screaming “STOP, STOP, STOP”, “What are you doing?” We all stopped and gave him the deer caught in the headlights stare. He then proceeded to tell us that we were drilling in a minefield!
As he was finishing his sentence we were pulling out the dig permits that said that the Australians cleared that whole area. The Major persisted to say that the paperwork was incorrect, so instead of starting a international incident, we thought that we would go and get the Aussie that cleared the area for mines and let him tell the Major that he was wrong.
We brought the Australian EOD WO on site. His first remarks were “Who moved the mine safety fence back without letting me know?” The WO said that the fence was about 10 meters further back than it was when they cleared the area. Pitcher if you may the fact that we the Canadians and the American lineman have been walking, driving, drilling, dropping 4000lbs concrete poles in this mine field for the last 5 days. After the great news that we did what anyone would of done and called it a day and went smoking, we smoked since we can’t drink over here and that day we needed a drink. A few days later, we got back at it and had much better luck, planting the poles (in a different route), trenching the cable with practically no problems. The last event of concern on this job was when the US crane dropped a 100lbs steel hardware collar that goes on the top of the pole. We were placing the hardware onto one of the poles, the crane released and the 100lbs steel hardware came screaming down towards the top of the crane, than “crash” it landed on the wheel well of the crane just 2 ft from the operators area. Once again the Sgt went smoking and also said that he was going to go and get his blood pressure checked, he still couldn’t find a drink either.
We have been outside the wire on several occasions, traveling to Kabul, PRT, MSG and any other locations that they require LMN. Cpl Ron Keegan has spent most of his tour at the PRT even though there is no LMN position on the TO&E but they just can’t do without one so he got sent down from KAF to look after matters there. That unfortunately just makes life that much busier here at KAF for the rest of us.
There is much new construction here at KAF, if you don’t go to a certain part of the base (which is bigger then CFB Petawawa) for a week or so you will most likely find a new building built or a stack of sea cans where they weren’t any before.
Tim Horton’s. We have managed to hook the rest of the collation on it. The Brits especially. Whenever we walk by the boardwalk at Timmies, it is just packed with the UK guys. We tell them we put crack cocaine in our coffee, some of them even believe it.
Our accommodations vary. The BAT tents (Big Ass Tent) where we first lived house about 200 soldiers. After a few weeks there we moved into our weather havens, which are much better. Each tent holds 8 guys and you have you own little 4 x 8 foot piece of privacy, of course most people that snore are killed outright or get several line boots to the head.
The food is pretty good at KAF, but the guys at the FOB’s don’t get the fresh hot food or the regular showers. The food at the PRT is Canadian is excellent and at Kabul there are several mess kitchens all being good. At Sutour there is even a mess that we are allowed to have beer. Whenever the WO asks for volunteers to go to Kabul there is no shortage of volunteers.
We have put 16 coffins on the plane since we got here and those are just the Canadians. The ramp ceremonies are just a part of life; just as the rocket attacks are also. We have had more than a dozen rocket attacks also but not many close calls fortunately, although one dud did bounce off a near by Hummer one night and got our attention.
There are many more stories to tell, like the, “Longest Fiber Splice in NATO,” “MCpl Sparky Galbraith”, “LCF too close to a VBIED ”, “The Chain hoist stuck to the Pole”, and the newest one “10 Tonne Wrecker vs. the cement pole”. Those will have to wait for another time. If you buy us beer when we get home I am sure the boys will gladly tell them all.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our families, friends and fellow Linemen back home for their support and we will be seeing you all shortly. All of our prayers go out to the friends and families of our fellow soldiers that have been lost over here in battle.
TFA Canadian, MNB Canadian and US LMN KAF Afghanistan Oct 2006
