Chiefs of Police - Chapter 3

While the CoP were in Kabul I took then around to the various organizations that we have our members seconded to. First stop was NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTMA). This group is led by LGen Caldwell a US 3 star General and he is the guy I am getting a golf shirt from. NTMA spends 1 billion (yes billion) dollars a month to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The Afghan National Police are part of ANSF and our guys are in there to assist training and mentoring of the police.

Another stop was the European Union Police Mission (EUPOL). A couple of years ago the PM stood up in the House and said that Canada would contribute up to 22 members to the EUPOL Mission in Afghanistan....so here we are. There is quite a stark contrast bewteen EUPOL and NTMA as it relates to the "quality of life" for the members stationed at each place. NTMA is a military base where you share a room with 3-4 of your closest friends. You do not have a bathroom in your room and have to walk several blocks to find one, which is usually shared by a couple hundred people. At NTMA you work every day, all day. Literally from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. Plus, no alcohol allowed at all. At EUPOL...not so much.

EUPOL has an indoor swimming pool, squash courts and bar. You get your own room complete with a private bathroom and the work day is from 8:00 to 6:00 with Friday and Saturday off. As you can imagine, there are some long faces when the crew gets to Kabul and receive their assignments. I have to admit though...everyone really steps up and gets to work...the EUPOL guys of course just have to remind the NTMA crew that every Thursday night is "Margarita Night".

The picture at the Kabul airport is our Close Protection Team (CP). Great bunch of guys who kept us "company" throughout the visit.

Chiefs of Police - Chapter 2

No visit by senior officials to Afghanistan would be complete without an official dinner at the Embassy. Of course I was more than happy to oblige.....

I held the dinner on the CoP first night in Kabul and it turned out quite well, even if I do say so myself. One of the things I enjoy about being at the Embassy is that all of us here are like one big happy family. Everyone will pitch in to assist with each others programs. We had great help from all our colleauges at the Embassy, even though they are not part of our program. Everything from printing out the menus, setting up the tables, moving the food, etc. was all done by folks helping out.

The dinner was really the only oppourtunity the members in Kabul had to all get together as a group. As there are only three of us that work at the Embassy, it was quite a logistical feat to get everyone over from their various locations within Kabul. Not something we can do very often, so is was a nice evening of simply getting together to meet the CoP, socialize and share experiences with them.

I started the visit with the CoP in Kabul for a couple of days and then we made our way down south. The group picture represents about half the members we have in country. The remainder are stationed throughout the city and province of Khandahar...

Chiefs of Police Visit

I just had the incredible oppoutunity of taking several high ranking police officers to Afghanistan for a tour of what we do in the country. I have a pile of great photo's that I want to post but I am having problems with our Embassy internet connection...these three photo's took me an hour to post!

So...as with any good story, I have to start at the beginning. I flew to Dubai to meet D/Comm Paulson (my boss), Commissioner Lewis from the Ontario Provincial Police, Chief Blair from the Toronto Police Service, D/Chief Whiteway from Durhma Regional Police and Commander Fournier from Montreal. I arrived in Dubai a day before them so I could meet with our RCMP Liaison Officer (LO) to ensure the appropriate VISA's, security, etc. were all in place for their entry into Afghanistan.

The two pictures above were taken from my room in Dubai. The weather was outstanding and the service at the hotel was second to none. The first night in my room, I ordered a pizza and beer for supper. I was in heaven...sitting on my balcony in the warm air enjoying a great meal.

The third picture is how we started our Chiefs of Police (CoP) visit. The LO picked me up in the morning at the hotel in a brand new Range Rover. We were running a little late to get to the airport to pickup the CoP as they arrived from Toronto. The LO was backing up in front of the hotel in the parking lot and I was screaming at him to stop...he didn't. He backed up into a Lamborghini resulting in a scratch and dent in the hood. The parking attendants lost their minds and began wailing because the car belonged to an "Indian Princess". People were running everywhere, waving their arms in the air. The police were called and an investigation commenced. After about 30 minutes, the Indian Princess came out of the hotel....and she was in fact an Indian Princess. She was drapped in gold and jewels, approx 25 years old and talking on her cell phone. She looked at the damage and told the person on the other end of the phone that she would now get the "blue one" as the orange one was now damaged.

The poor LO was beside himself. He ended up getting a ticket and we are still waiting to find out how much it is going to cost to repair the hood. He kept looking at me and couldn't believe I was laughing over the whole thing...I told him not to worry. I said "if your going to back into a car, might as well make it a Lamborghini!".

We were late at the airport, but it didn't matter becasue the flights were delayed and two of the CoP's luggage was lost......

Chapter 2 on the next post.

Cpl. Yannick Sherrer

I regret that I am doing another blog on a Canadian soldier who lost his life in Afghanistan. Cpl. Yannick Sherrer died from the detonation of an improvised explosive device during a dismounted patrol in the Nakhony area of the Panjwaii District. He was 24 years old. Over the past 2 weeks, I have been extremely preoccupied with a visit by several Canadian Chiefs of Police to Afghanistan. I met them in Dubai and brought them into the country in order for them to meet their folks and see what we do here on a daily basis. We walked, drove and flew across Afghanistan as I showed them our various locations including Kabul, Kandahar, CNS and Panjwaii. We were down south in Kandahar when this tragedy occurred and they got to experience first hand a ramp ceremony on the runway in KAF. They felt the raw emotion as the body of a young Canadian soldier was being loaded up onto the plane for his trip home. What really resonated with me was that also being loaded up at the same time onto the massive CF Galaxy for the flight back to Ottawa, were scores of other young soldiers. These soldiers were dressed in civilian clothing having completed their Mission and were heading home. This scene at 1:30 in the morning, in the dessert heat on a runway far from home made me wonder just how much these soldiers and their families have been changed by their time in Afghanistan....one obviously in an extremely profound and tragic way.