Travel Log - Afghanistan Deployment 2009/10

My time in Afghanistan was different from anything I had experienced in my life.  I learned a lot, met some truly impressive people.  Here are a few pictures that I was able to take while there.

 Click on the trip title to see the log.

On the Way There

  • It took almost a week to get from Kingston to Kabul.  We stopped over in Cologne, Germany, but those pictures I have put in a different travel log.  These few pictures were taken on the way there, and when I first arrived in Kabul.

Canada Day in Kabul 2009

  • A few days after I arrived in Kabul it was Canada Day.  For many of the Canadians this was the last event in their deployment, but for some of us who had arrived in the days and few weeks before it was the first chance for us to get together with not only our fellow Canadians, but the rest of the international staff in ISAF HQ.

Canada House

  • Here are a few pictures of some of the people that I spent all or most of my deployment with.  The roof of Canada House was set up as an outdoor patio.  During the summer and fall the weather was warm enough that sitting on the roof was one of the best places in the compound.  Before Commander ISAF made the camp dry, it was also a good place for us to bring members of the international staff to share a glass of wine and chat which always helped smooth the way when trying to get things done in the headquarters.

ISAF Compound

  • Many of these pictures were taken from the roof of Canada House, which was considered to have one of the best views in the compound.  Others were taken from around the compound itself.

ANA Compound

  • All but a few days while I was in Kabul I worked in the Afghan National Army compound which is a few kilometers away from the ISAF compound.  The ANA compound shares a wall with the Presidential compound which meant that often when rocket attacks were aimed at the Presidential compound they hit the ANA compound instead.  The compound itself had only a few buildings and many open fields.  It was one of the bests kept and open and green spaces I saw in the city.

The NMCC

  • Most of the work I did was at the National Military Coordination Centre.  The building itself was more impressive from the outside, clad as it was in marble, than it was on the inside.   I learned a lot about the country from the may officers and interpreters I worked with in the NMCC.

Over the Wall at the ANA Compound

  • While walking around the ANA compound I was often able to take some pictures of the city outside.

Remembrance Day

  • On November 11th a group of us took time from our jobs and went to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul to participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies.  Afghan Minister of Defence Wardack came and spoke to us.  It was great to be surrounded by a variety of Canadian military members, civil servants, and contractors who all gathered together with some representatives from other Commonwealth countries to remember those on who's shoulders we stan.

Around Kabul

  • In order to get to work I had to leave the ISAF compound and travel through the city to get to the ANA compound.  Also, there were many time we needed to go visit other compounds, most commonly the US Camps Eggers and Phoenix, and the Afghan National Police and the Turkish compounds.  Sometimes I was able to get some pictures as we were out and around the city.

The Turkish Compound

  • A couple of months into the deployment a Turkish Air Force officer came to work with our team at the NMCC.  On occasions we needed to bring him to the Turkish compound and we always took advantage of these times to eat there.  Of all the mess halls I sampled in Kabul they had the best food.

Mess Dinner

  • Close to the end of my deployment the ISAF Joint Command stood up.  In fact, much of the my deployment was spent helping to prepare the NMCC to integrate into the new headquarters structure.  This meant that about 30 of the 40 or so Canadians working at ISAF HQ were going to be moving to the new headquarters.  Before they left we had a mess dinner.  Since the compound had been made dry a short time before it was the first mess dinner I had ever been too where there was no alcohol.  We still had a good time, partially because of the great sense of humour of our guest of honour, British Air Commodore Paddy Teakle.

Christmas in Kabul

  • Although some on my rotation left in time to get home for Christmas I was not scheduled to leave until early January.  The CDS, Minister of Sport and some entertainers came to see us in Kabul after they had been to Kandahar to see the main body of Canadian troops.  This gave all Canadians in Kabul a chance to get together and celebrate.