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My condolences. RIP
Also, best wishes for a speedy recovery to the others who were injured.
Also, best wishes for a speedy recovery to the others who were injured.
Pte. Robert Costall killed in Afghanistan firefight 29 Mar 2006
- Thread starter jc5778
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Some facts I googled of the area where he fought;
Helmand Province - one of 34 Provinces which make up Afghanistan.
Population: 1,011,600
Capital: Lashkar gah (America built a hydroelectric dam in the 1960's and irrigated parts of the City - abandoned in 1978 when the Communists took over).
Religion: Mainly Pashtun or Ethnic Afghan (some Iranian background) live by a pre-Islamic indigenous code of honor and culture.
Mostly desert type terrain, borders Pakistan, Helmand River runs through it.
Currently USAID is contributing a Counter Narcotics Initiative in the Province, and the 16th Air Assault Brigade are the main force of the British contingent who are supposed to relieve some US troops there.
Export: Opium
Province is said to have several Insurgent bases near the Pakistani border.
Gnplummer
Helmand Province - one of 34 Provinces which make up Afghanistan.
Population: 1,011,600
Capital: Lashkar gah (America built a hydroelectric dam in the 1960's and irrigated parts of the City - abandoned in 1978 when the Communists took over).
Religion: Mainly Pashtun or Ethnic Afghan (some Iranian background) live by a pre-Islamic indigenous code of honor and culture.
Mostly desert type terrain, borders Pakistan, Helmand River runs through it.
Currently USAID is contributing a Counter Narcotics Initiative in the Province, and the 16th Air Assault Brigade are the main force of the British contingent who are supposed to relieve some US troops there.
Export: Opium
Province is said to have several Insurgent bases near the Pakistani border.
Gnplummer
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Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured and prayers for fallen. May his family find peace. Stand easy solder 
.
.
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A bit more detail of the punch-up, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 21, of the Copyright Act - http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#rid-33409
Canadian soldier died defending outpost
Mar. 29, 2006. 08:13 PM
MURRAY BREWSTER
CANADIAN PRESS
"What was most unusual was the ferocity of the Taliban's frontal assault on the remote desert outpost where Canadian troops fought possibly their deadliest battle in more than 30 years.
It was not a shadowy ambush with a suicide attacker or a remote-controlled bomb, but a brazen assault with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and blazing guns on the newly established military outpost in the Sangin district of Helmand province, 110 kilometres from Kandahar City.
Pte. Robert Costall, 22, of Thunder Bay, Ont., died Wednesday in fighting off the attack, becoming the first Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in the kind of head-to-head combat that is more the forte of western armies than Taliban militants, who have often used guerrilla tactics.
(...)
In Wednesday's pitched battle, coalition forces killed 12 militants in the initial attack, while another 20 insurgents were killed as they fled, a U.S. military statement said.
The Taliban are considered an inferior fighting force by western commanders, said Vernon, the senior British officer in Kandahar. ``The only thing I will say: there is no doubt they are brave," said Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser.
Late Tuesday, a quick-reaction force from Charlie Company of the Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was called out to reinforce the desolate outpost, described as no more than a sun-baked patch of land ringed with sand berms and razor wire.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban attacked an Afghan army re-supply convoy near the base with assault rifles and roadside bombs, killing eight Afghan soldiers.
The outpost, near the tiny community of Heder Abad, had only been operating for a few weeks, as coalition troops established a presence in Helmand province, a hotbed of insurgent and illegal drug activity.
Coalition commanders unleashed a torrent of air strikes, using British Harrier fighter bombers, U.S. Apache helicopter gunships and B-52 bombers. Despite repeated attempts by insurgents to storm the base, coalition defenders hung on, military officials said.
Unconfirmed local media reports suggested civilians were injured and local homes damaged during the air strikes, but Vernon dismissed the claim, saying the only building destroyed was a compound where insurgents had been seen taking cover.
"This was not in an urban area; this forward operating base was almost in the middle of nowhere," he said."
(...)
Canadian soldier died defending outpost
Mar. 29, 2006. 08:13 PM
MURRAY BREWSTER
CANADIAN PRESS
"What was most unusual was the ferocity of the Taliban's frontal assault on the remote desert outpost where Canadian troops fought possibly their deadliest battle in more than 30 years.
It was not a shadowy ambush with a suicide attacker or a remote-controlled bomb, but a brazen assault with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and blazing guns on the newly established military outpost in the Sangin district of Helmand province, 110 kilometres from Kandahar City.
Pte. Robert Costall, 22, of Thunder Bay, Ont., died Wednesday in fighting off the attack, becoming the first Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in the kind of head-to-head combat that is more the forte of western armies than Taliban militants, who have often used guerrilla tactics.
(...)
In Wednesday's pitched battle, coalition forces killed 12 militants in the initial attack, while another 20 insurgents were killed as they fled, a U.S. military statement said.
The Taliban are considered an inferior fighting force by western commanders, said Vernon, the senior British officer in Kandahar. ``The only thing I will say: there is no doubt they are brave," said Vernon, chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Fraser.
Late Tuesday, a quick-reaction force from Charlie Company of the Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was called out to reinforce the desolate outpost, described as no more than a sun-baked patch of land ringed with sand berms and razor wire.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban attacked an Afghan army re-supply convoy near the base with assault rifles and roadside bombs, killing eight Afghan soldiers.
The outpost, near the tiny community of Heder Abad, had only been operating for a few weeks, as coalition troops established a presence in Helmand province, a hotbed of insurgent and illegal drug activity.
Coalition commanders unleashed a torrent of air strikes, using British Harrier fighter bombers, U.S. Apache helicopter gunships and B-52 bombers. Despite repeated attempts by insurgents to storm the base, coalition defenders hung on, military officials said.
Unconfirmed local media reports suggested civilians were injured and local homes damaged during the air strikes, but Vernon dismissed the claim, saying the only building destroyed was a compound where insurgents had been seen taking cover.
"This was not in an urban area; this forward operating base was almost in the middle of nowhere," he said."
(...)
from darkness lite
Member
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RIP Pte. Robert Costall
Thoughts and prayers to the family.
FDL
Thoughts and prayers to the family.
FDL
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Sleep well brother, your fire pickett is over. :'(
:'(
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My condolences to the family, friends and the Regiment.
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A great article from Michele Mandel in the Toronto Sun today.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mandel_Michele/2006/04/02/1515998.html
Final journey home for a fallen hero
By Michele Mandel
TRENTON — Through her tears, she embraced her husband’s flag-draped coffin and whispered, “He’s home now. He’s home.”
And so he is.
Under grey clouds hanging heavy and low, the remains of Pte. Robert Costall arrived back on Canadian soil yesterday.
Just before noon, the military Airbus carrying his body taxied to a halt on the same wind-swept tarmac where so many young men and women have departed for their tour of duty in Afghanistan — and where 11 coffins have returned in their stead.
We are still not used to it, thank God. The repatriation of a fallen soldier still remains a national blow that strikes at our very heart. And when he is but 22, the married father of a little boy who’s just one, it aches all the more.
But while we are not yet accustomed to these fatalities, they are no longer unique. After a dozen deaths in Afghanistan since 2002, including that of a Canadian diplomat, this is a ritual no longer unknown.
Yet it remains as heartrending as ever.
They were a triangle of pain: Costall’s widow, Chrissy, flanked by his father, Greg, and mother, Bonnie Jean, clung fiercely to each other at the first sight of the coffin being unloaded from the belly of the huge plane.
It was really true then. The horrible news that he had become the first Canadian soldier in Afghanistan to be killed in combat must have still seemed so unreal until that coffin came slowly towards them, borne on the shoulders of eight grim-faced soldiers from CFB Petawawa.
He was really gone. As the lone piper’s mournful lament glided on the wind, Costall’s widow placed her arm around her tiny mother-in-law and tried to calm her wracking sobs, as her own tears slipped slowly down her cheeks.
Tears of loss. Tears of pride.
“He was proud to be a soldier,” Chrissy told the Edmonton Sun before leaving to receive her husband’s remains. “He was dedicated — to me and our baby — but also to Canada.
“I’m not angry that he’s gone, only heartbroken.”
Born in Thunder Bay, the hockey-mad Costall moved with his family to B.C.’s Sunshine Coast when he was 10. He turned to the military, he told his family, to give his life meaning. And he had found it. While they were apprehensive about his deployment to Afghanistan, he reassured them all that he believed in his regiment, the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and he believed in their mission.
He died Wednesday fighting off a fierce Taliban mortar and rocket-propelled grenade assault on a remote desert military base about 110 km northwest of Kandahar.
He had been just six weeks away from a scheduled 19-day leave home to his wife and baby Colin.
That joyous homecoming will never be. Instead, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor and General Rick Hillier, Commander Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, were there to comfort Costall’s wife and parents as the slain soldier made his final journey home.
“When families watch the body coming across the tarmac, I know they’re hurting and I was hurting for them,” said base spokesman Capt. Nicole Meszaros.
“I think we all are.”
Capt. Robert Lauder certainly was. The chaplain felt compelled to volunteer to be at yesterday’s brief ceremony — he is going to Afghanistan himself in August.
“This is not another peacekeeping operation. This is very different,” said Lauder, 50.
Knowing the danger he will soon face added extra poignancy to his duties yesterday as he accompanied Lauder’s coffin to the waiting hearse that would take him to Toronto for an autopsy.
‘I cried’
“When I first saw the coffin, I thought ‘That could be me. That could be somebody I know and love.’
“I never met him, but that’s my friend because we share the same uniform and the same goals.”
He tried his best to comfort Costall’s family, but he knows words offer so little right now. What can he say to a young widow, just 20 years old, who now faces raising her baby alone? And what can be said to a mother and father broken by inconsolable grief?
“I cried. We cried together,” he said later. “As the minister of defence told them, ‘It’s not right for a child to die before a parent.’ It’s wrong when that happens.”
So while words may offer little consolation now, he gave them this vow. “I share their grief,” the padre said, “and I’ll do my best to honour his memory upon arrival in theatre.”
A hero to his country and to his fellow soldiers, he was that and so much more to his family.
As Costall’s casket was placed gently into the waiting black hearse, and an honour guard of fellow soldiers saluted crisply in respect, his widow could no longer bear to be so far away.
She crossed the tarmac, her long auburn hair tossed wildly by the wind, and lay her trembling hands on her husband’s coffin. What private words of love and loss she wept we will never know, nor should we.
All that could be seen was her relief that they were together once more. Pte. Robert Costall had served his country well — and now he was home at last.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Mandel_Michele/2006/04/02/1515998.html
Final journey home for a fallen hero
By Michele Mandel
TRENTON — Through her tears, she embraced her husband’s flag-draped coffin and whispered, “He’s home now. He’s home.”
And so he is.
Under grey clouds hanging heavy and low, the remains of Pte. Robert Costall arrived back on Canadian soil yesterday.
Just before noon, the military Airbus carrying his body taxied to a halt on the same wind-swept tarmac where so many young men and women have departed for their tour of duty in Afghanistan — and where 11 coffins have returned in their stead.
We are still not used to it, thank God. The repatriation of a fallen soldier still remains a national blow that strikes at our very heart. And when he is but 22, the married father of a little boy who’s just one, it aches all the more.
But while we are not yet accustomed to these fatalities, they are no longer unique. After a dozen deaths in Afghanistan since 2002, including that of a Canadian diplomat, this is a ritual no longer unknown.
Yet it remains as heartrending as ever.
They were a triangle of pain: Costall’s widow, Chrissy, flanked by his father, Greg, and mother, Bonnie Jean, clung fiercely to each other at the first sight of the coffin being unloaded from the belly of the huge plane.
It was really true then. The horrible news that he had become the first Canadian soldier in Afghanistan to be killed in combat must have still seemed so unreal until that coffin came slowly towards them, borne on the shoulders of eight grim-faced soldiers from CFB Petawawa.
He was really gone. As the lone piper’s mournful lament glided on the wind, Costall’s widow placed her arm around her tiny mother-in-law and tried to calm her wracking sobs, as her own tears slipped slowly down her cheeks.
Tears of loss. Tears of pride.
“He was proud to be a soldier,” Chrissy told the Edmonton Sun before leaving to receive her husband’s remains. “He was dedicated — to me and our baby — but also to Canada.
“I’m not angry that he’s gone, only heartbroken.”
Born in Thunder Bay, the hockey-mad Costall moved with his family to B.C.’s Sunshine Coast when he was 10. He turned to the military, he told his family, to give his life meaning. And he had found it. While they were apprehensive about his deployment to Afghanistan, he reassured them all that he believed in his regiment, the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and he believed in their mission.
He died Wednesday fighting off a fierce Taliban mortar and rocket-propelled grenade assault on a remote desert military base about 110 km northwest of Kandahar.
He had been just six weeks away from a scheduled 19-day leave home to his wife and baby Colin.
That joyous homecoming will never be. Instead, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor and General Rick Hillier, Commander Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, were there to comfort Costall’s wife and parents as the slain soldier made his final journey home.
“When families watch the body coming across the tarmac, I know they’re hurting and I was hurting for them,” said base spokesman Capt. Nicole Meszaros.
“I think we all are.”
Capt. Robert Lauder certainly was. The chaplain felt compelled to volunteer to be at yesterday’s brief ceremony — he is going to Afghanistan himself in August.
“This is not another peacekeeping operation. This is very different,” said Lauder, 50.
Knowing the danger he will soon face added extra poignancy to his duties yesterday as he accompanied Lauder’s coffin to the waiting hearse that would take him to Toronto for an autopsy.
‘I cried’
“When I first saw the coffin, I thought ‘That could be me. That could be somebody I know and love.’
“I never met him, but that’s my friend because we share the same uniform and the same goals.”
He tried his best to comfort Costall’s family, but he knows words offer so little right now. What can he say to a young widow, just 20 years old, who now faces raising her baby alone? And what can be said to a mother and father broken by inconsolable grief?
“I cried. We cried together,” he said later. “As the minister of defence told them, ‘It’s not right for a child to die before a parent.’ It’s wrong when that happens.”
So while words may offer little consolation now, he gave them this vow. “I share their grief,” the padre said, “and I’ll do my best to honour his memory upon arrival in theatre.”
A hero to his country and to his fellow soldiers, he was that and so much more to his family.
As Costall’s casket was placed gently into the waiting black hearse, and an honour guard of fellow soldiers saluted crisply in respect, his widow could no longer bear to be so far away.
She crossed the tarmac, her long auburn hair tossed wildly by the wind, and lay her trembling hands on her husband’s coffin. What private words of love and loss she wept we will never know, nor should we.
All that could be seen was her relief that they were together once more. Pte. Robert Costall had served his country well — and now he was home at last.
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I remember when the deployment to Kandahar was in the news and I said to my wife that soldiers could be coming home dead from this mission. She seemed surprised that this was a possibility. She is not from a military family and never really keeps track of the military/foreign affairs.
We were watching the Flames/Oilers game last night and after the national anthem she turned to me and said that it would have been nice if there was a moment of silence for Pte. Costall, as he was based in Edmonton. We also saw a sound bite on the news that the flags in Ottawa were not at half mast, as has been the case with all others coming home.
I pray that there is not an acceptance/devaluing of Pte. Costall's and other's sacrifice.
As I type this I feel humbled/unworthy to speak on the subject, I also feel a sense of guilt for releasing all those many years ago.
My thoughts are with his famliy.
We were watching the Flames/Oilers game last night and after the national anthem she turned to me and said that it would have been nice if there was a moment of silence for Pte. Costall, as he was based in Edmonton. We also saw a sound bite on the news that the flags in Ottawa were not at half mast, as has been the case with all others coming home.
I pray that there is not an acceptance/devaluing of Pte. Costall's and other's sacrifice.
As I type this I feel humbled/unworthy to speak on the subject, I also feel a sense of guilt for releasing all those many years ago.
My thoughts are with his famliy.
- Reaction score
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Payback coming, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 21, of the Copyright Act (http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#rid-33409)...
Canadian reinforcements take up position at firebase where soldier died
Murray Brewster, Canadian Press, 021852 Apr 06, from
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w040243A
"KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - In a show of force meant to confront Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian army further reinforced the area around a remote outpost where two soldiers were killed last week in a vicious firefight.
Canadian Pte. Robert Costall, 22, a machine-gunner, and U.S. national guardsman Sgt. 1st Class John Stone, 52, a medic, were killed in the battle in the Sangin district of Helmand province last Wednesday.
A large contingent of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, backed by engineers, artillery and coalition air support moved into the region under a blanket of secrecy over the weekend. The outpost where the two were killed is christened FOB - forward operating base - Robinson in memory of a U.S. soldier killed in the region.
Helmand, a lawless, narcotics-infested area west of Kandahar, is a major poppy growing region and a hotbed of insurgent activity.
If the city and province of Kandahar can be considered chaotic with its suicide car bombers and roadside explosions, Helmund is best described as a cauldron, where insurgents and drug gangs roam openly.
"It's a key transit area for the Taliban," said Maj. Bill Fletcher, commander of Charlie Company.
"Their spiritual centre may be in Kandahar city, but their pocketbook is in the poppy cultivation in Helmand province."
Dubbed Operation Ketara - Pashtu for dagger - Fletcher said the troops are facing a more determined enemy in this region.
"They're not your average Taliban," he said at a briefing prior to the deployment.
"They're a little better, but not that good. This is sort of a step above what we've faced up until today."
Unlike Kandahar, Taliban fighters in Helmand use "co-ordinated attack tactics," Fletcher said.
Taliban ranks are also being bolstered by locals, who as seasonal poppy workers, have thrown their support behind the insurgency.
"It's going to be impossible to differentiate between a guy with a rifle protecting a poppy field, or a bad guy," he warned the troops.
The British are expected to take over full operational control of the province this summer with 3,500 troops.
One of the key objectives of the mission is to begin the process of securing the area so local Afghan authorities can plow under the poppy fields.
Although Taliban leaders deny they're involved in the illegal drug trade, they issued a written warning specifically to the British, who've already begun to arrive in the region.
Mullah Razayar Nurzai, a Taliban commander, claimed as many as 600 suicide bombers are trained and ready to take action in Helmand.
The coalition has never had a sustained presence in the area, with the exception of small units of British Royal Marine commandos, U.S. Special Forces and platoons of regular American army units. The Soviet occupation was likely the last time the region saw a major military force.
Just as the operation got underway, two Canadian soldiers were injured in a traffic accident involving their light armoured vehicle. A passing truck clipped the gun, whipping the turret around and striking the two so-called air sentries, who were evacuated to Kandahar airfield by helicopter.
Lieut. Mark MacIntyre, a Canadian military spokesman, said the injuries are not life-threatening.
The arrival of Charlie Company bolsters an existing Canadian contingent, which was rushed into action last Tuesday after a roadside ambush killed six Afghan National Army troops on resupply convoy.
The foray into Helmand came as Canadian troops resumed the hunt for insurgents in the mountain passes north of Kandahar.
Conducting two simultaneous operations is not a stretch, said the commander of the Canadian battle group.
"Since our arrival in theatre we have not been at full operating capacity," said Col. Ian Hope in a recent media briefing.
"We have been receiving new kit and new equipment from home and that's taken time to get trained up. You will start seeing more patrols by day."
Hope's reference is to the recent purchase of Nyala armoured land rovers, a sturdy South African-made vehicle designed to withstand mine blasts. "
Also, for some background:
"Helmand Province and the Afghan Insurgency"
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369937
Canadian reinforcements take up position at firebase where soldier died
Murray Brewster, Canadian Press, 021852 Apr 06, from
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w040243A
"KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - In a show of force meant to confront Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian army further reinforced the area around a remote outpost where two soldiers were killed last week in a vicious firefight.
Canadian Pte. Robert Costall, 22, a machine-gunner, and U.S. national guardsman Sgt. 1st Class John Stone, 52, a medic, were killed in the battle in the Sangin district of Helmand province last Wednesday.
A large contingent of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, backed by engineers, artillery and coalition air support moved into the region under a blanket of secrecy over the weekend. The outpost where the two were killed is christened FOB - forward operating base - Robinson in memory of a U.S. soldier killed in the region.
Helmand, a lawless, narcotics-infested area west of Kandahar, is a major poppy growing region and a hotbed of insurgent activity.
If the city and province of Kandahar can be considered chaotic with its suicide car bombers and roadside explosions, Helmund is best described as a cauldron, where insurgents and drug gangs roam openly.
"It's a key transit area for the Taliban," said Maj. Bill Fletcher, commander of Charlie Company.
"Their spiritual centre may be in Kandahar city, but their pocketbook is in the poppy cultivation in Helmand province."
Dubbed Operation Ketara - Pashtu for dagger - Fletcher said the troops are facing a more determined enemy in this region.
"They're not your average Taliban," he said at a briefing prior to the deployment.
"They're a little better, but not that good. This is sort of a step above what we've faced up until today."
Unlike Kandahar, Taliban fighters in Helmand use "co-ordinated attack tactics," Fletcher said.
Taliban ranks are also being bolstered by locals, who as seasonal poppy workers, have thrown their support behind the insurgency.
"It's going to be impossible to differentiate between a guy with a rifle protecting a poppy field, or a bad guy," he warned the troops.
The British are expected to take over full operational control of the province this summer with 3,500 troops.
One of the key objectives of the mission is to begin the process of securing the area so local Afghan authorities can plow under the poppy fields.
Although Taliban leaders deny they're involved in the illegal drug trade, they issued a written warning specifically to the British, who've already begun to arrive in the region.
Mullah Razayar Nurzai, a Taliban commander, claimed as many as 600 suicide bombers are trained and ready to take action in Helmand.
The coalition has never had a sustained presence in the area, with the exception of small units of British Royal Marine commandos, U.S. Special Forces and platoons of regular American army units. The Soviet occupation was likely the last time the region saw a major military force.
Just as the operation got underway, two Canadian soldiers were injured in a traffic accident involving their light armoured vehicle. A passing truck clipped the gun, whipping the turret around and striking the two so-called air sentries, who were evacuated to Kandahar airfield by helicopter.
Lieut. Mark MacIntyre, a Canadian military spokesman, said the injuries are not life-threatening.
The arrival of Charlie Company bolsters an existing Canadian contingent, which was rushed into action last Tuesday after a roadside ambush killed six Afghan National Army troops on resupply convoy.
The foray into Helmand came as Canadian troops resumed the hunt for insurgents in the mountain passes north of Kandahar.
Conducting two simultaneous operations is not a stretch, said the commander of the Canadian battle group.
"Since our arrival in theatre we have not been at full operating capacity," said Col. Ian Hope in a recent media briefing.
"We have been receiving new kit and new equipment from home and that's taken time to get trained up. You will start seeing more patrols by day."
Hope's reference is to the recent purchase of Nyala armoured land rovers, a sturdy South African-made vehicle designed to withstand mine blasts. "
Also, for some background:
"Helmand Province and the Afghan Insurgency"
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369937
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It's section 29. 
Thanks for putting the disclaimer there, though. It's something we should all do a little more often.
Whiskey.
Thanks for putting the disclaimer there, though. It's something we should all do a little more often.
Whiskey.
1
17thRecceSgt
Guest
RIP
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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060402/afghanistan_ffire_060404/20060404?hub=TopStories
If it is true hopefully we can take better measures if that's possible for tgt identification.
Friendly fire possible in soldiers' deaths: Army
Updated Tue. Apr. 4 2006 2:09 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canadian and U.S. military officials are reviewing whether friendly fire played a role in any deaths or injuries during a March 28 firefight with the Taliban.
Pte. Robert Costall, a machine-gunner, and a U.S. soldier -- national guardsman Sgt. 1st Class John Stone, 52, a medic -- died in that encounter. Five other soldiers were wounded, including three Canadians.
"'The initial findings justify the requirement for further investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the firefight, including whether any of the casualties resulted from friendly fire'," said CTV's Ellen Pinchuk early Tuesday, reading from Canadian Forces news release.
The incident occurred in Sangin district of Helmand province, about 110 km north of Kandahar.
Afghan National Army troops first engaged Taliban insurgents.
A quick reaction force -- 7 Platoon of Charlie Company of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
-- was dispatched by helicopter to reinforce the Afghan troops.
Pinchuk had video of the remote forward operating base, which is essentially a dusty plain, with the base's boundaries marked with concertina wire and a slight berm.
"The attack came at night from several sides by the Taliban," Pinchuk said. "It's possible that in the crossfire, somebody could have shot at one of their own."
While military aircraft, including B-52 bombers, were used during the lengthy battle, Pinchuk said an errant air strike isn't suspected.
"We're told that it could have been Canadian, U.S. or Afghan national Army fire, or it may have been enemy fire from the Taliban. We'll have to wait and see what the results of the investigation turn up," she said.
Costall's body arrived in Canada on Saturday, where his devastated wife Chrissy and Costall's parents met his coffin.
His body was taken to Toronto for a routine autopsy.
That same day in Afghanistan, Canadian troops were dispatched to the same area he died as part of Operation Ketara, a Pashtu word for dagger.
Helmand province is a hotbed of not only the Taliban, but opium growers too.
Part of the mission's purpose is to secure the area so that local Afghan authorities can plow the fields under.
With a report from CTV's Ellen Pinchuk
If it is true hopefully we can take better measures if that's possible for tgt identification.
Friendly fire possible in soldiers' deaths: Army
Updated Tue. Apr. 4 2006 2:09 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canadian and U.S. military officials are reviewing whether friendly fire played a role in any deaths or injuries during a March 28 firefight with the Taliban.
Pte. Robert Costall, a machine-gunner, and a U.S. soldier -- national guardsman Sgt. 1st Class John Stone, 52, a medic -- died in that encounter. Five other soldiers were wounded, including three Canadians.
"'The initial findings justify the requirement for further investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding the firefight, including whether any of the casualties resulted from friendly fire'," said CTV's Ellen Pinchuk early Tuesday, reading from Canadian Forces news release.
The incident occurred in Sangin district of Helmand province, about 110 km north of Kandahar.
Afghan National Army troops first engaged Taliban insurgents.
A quick reaction force -- 7 Platoon of Charlie Company of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
-- was dispatched by helicopter to reinforce the Afghan troops.
Pinchuk had video of the remote forward operating base, which is essentially a dusty plain, with the base's boundaries marked with concertina wire and a slight berm.
"The attack came at night from several sides by the Taliban," Pinchuk said. "It's possible that in the crossfire, somebody could have shot at one of their own."
While military aircraft, including B-52 bombers, were used during the lengthy battle, Pinchuk said an errant air strike isn't suspected.
"We're told that it could have been Canadian, U.S. or Afghan national Army fire, or it may have been enemy fire from the Taliban. We'll have to wait and see what the results of the investigation turn up," she said.
Costall's body arrived in Canada on Saturday, where his devastated wife Chrissy and Costall's parents met his coffin.
His body was taken to Toronto for a routine autopsy.
That same day in Afghanistan, Canadian troops were dispatched to the same area he died as part of Operation Ketara, a Pashtu word for dagger.
Helmand province is a hotbed of not only the Taliban, but opium growers too.
Part of the mission's purpose is to secure the area so that local Afghan authorities can plow the fields under.
With a report from CTV's Ellen Pinchuk
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A bit more detail, with the usual disclaimer....
http://milnewstbay.pbwiki.com/97976
"In the Afghan badlands, troops get haunting news
Christie Blatchford, Globe & Mail,4 Apr 06, pg. A1.
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD FORWARD OPERATING BASE ROBINSON: AFGHANISTAN - Their heads filled with chilling new intelligence about the Taliban, hundreds of young Canadians from Charlie Company of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry are now encamped in the swirling dust of what is the most volatile part of southern Afghanistan.
An enormous convoy, augmented by the big guns of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and with reconnaissance and air support from the United States, moved west from Kandahar city into the badlands of Helmand province early Sunday in Operation Ketara, the Pashto word for "dagger." The soldiers were sent off after their junior officers and non-commissioned officers received a lengthy and remarkably literate operational briefing from Major Bill Fletcher, Officer Commanding for Charlie Company, which left no room for doubt that the troops were heading into great peril.
Perhaps the most alarming information Major Fletcher had to give the troops was how very quickly this particular group of Taliban are able to activate preplanted improvised explosives devices, or IEDs, and that they are sophisticated and disciplined enough to maintain both radio silence and a fighting reserve.
"They're not your average Taliban," Major Fletcher told the officers and NCOs in his hour-long briefing.
"They're sort of a step above what we've faced until today." But, mirroring the confidence of his soldiers, the 34-year-old, one of a group of bright young officers hand-picked by the Canadian Forces command for the Afghanistan mission, promised that "there's going to be a lot of crap military resources in the area, the most lethal and potent of which is us," and told the troops "they're a little better, but not that good." The Taliban has already paid a hefty price for the assault last week that killed Canadian Private Rob Costall , Major Fletcher said.
He noted that they have taken 70 casualties.
An estimated 150 Taliban hard core remain in the area, Major Fletcher said, with their numbers likely to be "bolstered by seasonal poppy workers" and local drug lords "who are throwing their lot in with the Taliban to protect their livelihoods." But as Major Fletcher said, "It's impossible to differentiate between a guy with a gun protecting a poppy field and a bad guy, and we may not have time to figure it out until we get back." He told his officers that the Canadian troops were not to instigate an attack, but said that if "they have hostile intent, we don't give a shit who it is." The fact that remnants of the repressive Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, who ruled most of this embattled country until the U.S. invasion in the fall of 2001, still enjoy some local support illustrates the complexity of the Canadian and coalition tasks here, a battle that is both military and economic.
In Major Fletcher's words, "The Taliban's spiritual centre may be in Kandahar city, but their pocketbook lies in the poppy cultivation in Helmand province." The 100-kilometre trip from Kandahar city took the convoy west to this dusty forward operating base, or FOB, in the Sangin River Valley, known until recently as FOB Wolf and renamed last week days after the
death of Staff Sergeant Christopher Robinson, a 36-year-old U.S. soldier killed in action.
Poignantly, another part of the FOB, which is nothing more than a wide-open expanse of near-desert ringed by sandbags dotted here and there by improbably lush poppy fields blossoming with pink-and-white flowers, has a new name -- Gate Costall , for Private Robert Costall , the 22-year-old Canadian soldier who was also killed here while laying down a protective firebase for his fellows in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
At the moment, the "gate" consists of just a break in the concertina wire at the north side of the compound, but Major Fletcher says a commemorative plaque in honour of Pte. Costall will soon be in place.
It was in this narrow space between that concertina wire and the sandbag perimeter where Pte. Costall died in the dirt, as the so-called quick-reaction force, or QFR, composed of Canadians from 7 Platoon of Charlie Company scrambled to defend the FOB, then under sustained attack from the Taliban from the compounds and small hills just outside the wire. In the approximately 45 days since about 120 soldiers from the Afghan National Army and their American mentors first established the FOB, there has been fighting there virtually every second day.
Among the Canadians who arrived early yesterday morning at the FOB were some of the eight pallbearers and the sergeant who carried Pte. Costall 's casket and participated in the formal "ramp ceremony" that saw his body sent off home to Canada.
Cruelly, one of those pallbearers, 22-year-old Private Dawson Bayliss, was himself injured in a bloody accident en route to the FOB and had to be airlifted out, along with another young private, more seriously injured, who can be identified only as Daniel. The two were air sentries -- it means they stand in open rear hatches, guns at the ready -- in a light armoured vehicle, or LAV, when the cannon atop the vehicle was struck by a truck in the outskirts of Kandahar City.
The cannon then spun about and whacked the two soldiers in the turret, sending Daniel bloodied and moaning back into the laps of his fellows in the LAV, none of them quite sure whether the convoy had been attacked.
Pte. Bayliss has been released from hospital. Daniel remains in treatment and may yet be flown to a U.S. hospital in Germany for further care, though he too is expected to fully recover.
Pte. Costall 's mates from 7 Platoon have returned to Kandahar Air Field, where most of the Canadians and soldiers from seven
other coalition-force nations are stationed.
They arrived "a little lighter than normal," Major Fletcher said somberly, "and they certainly . . . earned their keep. . . . They did a real good job." The 7 Platoon was originally brought to the FOB as reinforcements for the Afghan army, which lost eight soldiers in a combination Taliban ambush and IED strike last Tuesday. But the Canadians who arrived yesterday can expect to remain in place much longer, Major Fletcher told their commanders.
He said their mission here is fourfold: to secure the FOB; disrupt the Taliban such that they can no longer use the river valley as their traditional transit corridor; create settled conditions for the British and Afghan forces who will soon begin eradication of the poppy fields in Helmand; and support "the kill-capture" mission of special forces in the area.
Even as the convoy set out, information was coming in hard and fast warning of the dangers of the journey -- there was a handful of suicide bombers in Kandahar city ready to go, including one in a car, whose driver was circling the city and environs in search of the column. And that morning, the Americans at the FOB had emerged to find that just south and west of the base, roadside bombs had harmlessly exploded.
The convoy travelled along Highway 611, which runs west to Helmand, and then up the river valley, often moving cross-country
over rough terrain in pitch blackness to avoid the IED-laden main roads.
For the young soldiers of the PPCLI's 1st Battalion, based in Edmonton, the dangerous mission came as a mixed blessing they readily embraced.
As Warrant Officer Shaun Peterson, a platoon commander, said of being a Canadian soldier usually tasked with pure peacekeeping, "One of the troops said it's like being a baker, but nobody gives you any flour. Now, they get some." A young female LAV driver, rueful that she was unable to leave with the convoy because of an injured hand, told of phoning her 10-year-old nephew, whose only question is, "Have you killed anyone yet? Have you killed anyone yet? "Of course," she said, "to him, killing is just a concept." There came a long pause, and she added, soberly, "Of course, it is to me too. I've only ever killed an animal that was suffering, and that was when I was working on a farm." Globe and Mail photographer Louie Palu and I
were on board with the PPCLI for the duration of the 23-hour trip -- made so long by the vehicle breakdowns and miscues that
afflict such big convoys -- as were two other Canadian journalists and a forces photographer.
In my LAV, as we set out, Sergeant Patrick Tower got the MP3 player going, Johnny Cash singing Sea of Heartbreak as the traditional sendoff tune, followed shortly thereafter by Toby Keith's The Taliban Song , his famous tune whose chorus goes like
this: "We'll bid a fair adieu and flip the finger to the Taliban." As Sgt. Tower said, "Someone once told me that rock 'n' roll is about the weekend, country music is about Monday to Friday, and it's true." The tunes changed shortly thereafter, with the younger soldiers -- Corporal Paul Rachynski, 24, Ptes. Bayliss and Daniel, Steve Dusyk, who turns 25 today, and gunner Jeff Leitch, 23 -- persuading Sgt. Tower to switch to rock.
But after the two air sentries were injured in the accident, the pair treated quickly by convoy medics and last seen lying pale and trembling on stretchers before a Black Hawk arrived to take them away, the mood in the LAV changed. It was as though reality had sunk in.
Pte. Bayliss is a distant cousin of Toronto Police Constable Todd Bayliss, killed in the line of duty by a multiple deportee named Clinton Junior Gayle one hot summer's night about a decade ago.
He was 25.
And Daniel, well, Daniel attended Lord Lansdowne Public School, right across from my house in downtown Toronto. We had just figured that out -- that he was entering Grade 8 there the year I moved into the house and reminisced about the pizza joint that sells slices at the corner -- moments before he was struck by the cannon and came tumbling back into the LAV, his face covered in blood.
The media got the boot from FOB Robinson shortly after we arrived, when Brigadier-General David Fraser, the top commander of operations for southern Afghanistan, received fresh intelligence that led him to assess the risks there as unacceptable. It was hard to argue. "
http://milnewstbay.pbwiki.com/97976
"In the Afghan badlands, troops get haunting news
Christie Blatchford, Globe & Mail,4 Apr 06, pg. A1.
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD FORWARD OPERATING BASE ROBINSON: AFGHANISTAN - Their heads filled with chilling new intelligence about the Taliban, hundreds of young Canadians from Charlie Company of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry are now encamped in the swirling dust of what is the most volatile part of southern Afghanistan.
An enormous convoy, augmented by the big guns of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and with reconnaissance and air support from the United States, moved west from Kandahar city into the badlands of Helmand province early Sunday in Operation Ketara, the Pashto word for "dagger." The soldiers were sent off after their junior officers and non-commissioned officers received a lengthy and remarkably literate operational briefing from Major Bill Fletcher, Officer Commanding for Charlie Company, which left no room for doubt that the troops were heading into great peril.
Perhaps the most alarming information Major Fletcher had to give the troops was how very quickly this particular group of Taliban are able to activate preplanted improvised explosives devices, or IEDs, and that they are sophisticated and disciplined enough to maintain both radio silence and a fighting reserve.
"They're not your average Taliban," Major Fletcher told the officers and NCOs in his hour-long briefing.
"They're sort of a step above what we've faced until today." But, mirroring the confidence of his soldiers, the 34-year-old, one of a group of bright young officers hand-picked by the Canadian Forces command for the Afghanistan mission, promised that "there's going to be a lot of crap military resources in the area, the most lethal and potent of which is us," and told the troops "they're a little better, but not that good." The Taliban has already paid a hefty price for the assault last week that killed Canadian Private Rob Costall , Major Fletcher said.
He noted that they have taken 70 casualties.
An estimated 150 Taliban hard core remain in the area, Major Fletcher said, with their numbers likely to be "bolstered by seasonal poppy workers" and local drug lords "who are throwing their lot in with the Taliban to protect their livelihoods." But as Major Fletcher said, "It's impossible to differentiate between a guy with a gun protecting a poppy field and a bad guy, and we may not have time to figure it out until we get back." He told his officers that the Canadian troops were not to instigate an attack, but said that if "they have hostile intent, we don't give a shit who it is." The fact that remnants of the repressive Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, who ruled most of this embattled country until the U.S. invasion in the fall of 2001, still enjoy some local support illustrates the complexity of the Canadian and coalition tasks here, a battle that is both military and economic.
In Major Fletcher's words, "The Taliban's spiritual centre may be in Kandahar city, but their pocketbook lies in the poppy cultivation in Helmand province." The 100-kilometre trip from Kandahar city took the convoy west to this dusty forward operating base, or FOB, in the Sangin River Valley, known until recently as FOB Wolf and renamed last week days after the
death of Staff Sergeant Christopher Robinson, a 36-year-old U.S. soldier killed in action.
Poignantly, another part of the FOB, which is nothing more than a wide-open expanse of near-desert ringed by sandbags dotted here and there by improbably lush poppy fields blossoming with pink-and-white flowers, has a new name -- Gate Costall , for Private Robert Costall , the 22-year-old Canadian soldier who was also killed here while laying down a protective firebase for his fellows in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
At the moment, the "gate" consists of just a break in the concertina wire at the north side of the compound, but Major Fletcher says a commemorative plaque in honour of Pte. Costall will soon be in place.
It was in this narrow space between that concertina wire and the sandbag perimeter where Pte. Costall died in the dirt, as the so-called quick-reaction force, or QFR, composed of Canadians from 7 Platoon of Charlie Company scrambled to defend the FOB, then under sustained attack from the Taliban from the compounds and small hills just outside the wire. In the approximately 45 days since about 120 soldiers from the Afghan National Army and their American mentors first established the FOB, there has been fighting there virtually every second day.
Among the Canadians who arrived early yesterday morning at the FOB were some of the eight pallbearers and the sergeant who carried Pte. Costall 's casket and participated in the formal "ramp ceremony" that saw his body sent off home to Canada.
Cruelly, one of those pallbearers, 22-year-old Private Dawson Bayliss, was himself injured in a bloody accident en route to the FOB and had to be airlifted out, along with another young private, more seriously injured, who can be identified only as Daniel. The two were air sentries -- it means they stand in open rear hatches, guns at the ready -- in a light armoured vehicle, or LAV, when the cannon atop the vehicle was struck by a truck in the outskirts of Kandahar City.
The cannon then spun about and whacked the two soldiers in the turret, sending Daniel bloodied and moaning back into the laps of his fellows in the LAV, none of them quite sure whether the convoy had been attacked.
Pte. Bayliss has been released from hospital. Daniel remains in treatment and may yet be flown to a U.S. hospital in Germany for further care, though he too is expected to fully recover.
Pte. Costall 's mates from 7 Platoon have returned to Kandahar Air Field, where most of the Canadians and soldiers from seven
other coalition-force nations are stationed.
They arrived "a little lighter than normal," Major Fletcher said somberly, "and they certainly . . . earned their keep. . . . They did a real good job." The 7 Platoon was originally brought to the FOB as reinforcements for the Afghan army, which lost eight soldiers in a combination Taliban ambush and IED strike last Tuesday. But the Canadians who arrived yesterday can expect to remain in place much longer, Major Fletcher told their commanders.
He said their mission here is fourfold: to secure the FOB; disrupt the Taliban such that they can no longer use the river valley as their traditional transit corridor; create settled conditions for the British and Afghan forces who will soon begin eradication of the poppy fields in Helmand; and support "the kill-capture" mission of special forces in the area.
Even as the convoy set out, information was coming in hard and fast warning of the dangers of the journey -- there was a handful of suicide bombers in Kandahar city ready to go, including one in a car, whose driver was circling the city and environs in search of the column. And that morning, the Americans at the FOB had emerged to find that just south and west of the base, roadside bombs had harmlessly exploded.
The convoy travelled along Highway 611, which runs west to Helmand, and then up the river valley, often moving cross-country
over rough terrain in pitch blackness to avoid the IED-laden main roads.
For the young soldiers of the PPCLI's 1st Battalion, based in Edmonton, the dangerous mission came as a mixed blessing they readily embraced.
As Warrant Officer Shaun Peterson, a platoon commander, said of being a Canadian soldier usually tasked with pure peacekeeping, "One of the troops said it's like being a baker, but nobody gives you any flour. Now, they get some." A young female LAV driver, rueful that she was unable to leave with the convoy because of an injured hand, told of phoning her 10-year-old nephew, whose only question is, "Have you killed anyone yet? Have you killed anyone yet? "Of course," she said, "to him, killing is just a concept." There came a long pause, and she added, soberly, "Of course, it is to me too. I've only ever killed an animal that was suffering, and that was when I was working on a farm." Globe and Mail photographer Louie Palu and I
were on board with the PPCLI for the duration of the 23-hour trip -- made so long by the vehicle breakdowns and miscues that
afflict such big convoys -- as were two other Canadian journalists and a forces photographer.
In my LAV, as we set out, Sergeant Patrick Tower got the MP3 player going, Johnny Cash singing Sea of Heartbreak as the traditional sendoff tune, followed shortly thereafter by Toby Keith's The Taliban Song , his famous tune whose chorus goes like
this: "We'll bid a fair adieu and flip the finger to the Taliban." As Sgt. Tower said, "Someone once told me that rock 'n' roll is about the weekend, country music is about Monday to Friday, and it's true." The tunes changed shortly thereafter, with the younger soldiers -- Corporal Paul Rachynski, 24, Ptes. Bayliss and Daniel, Steve Dusyk, who turns 25 today, and gunner Jeff Leitch, 23 -- persuading Sgt. Tower to switch to rock.
But after the two air sentries were injured in the accident, the pair treated quickly by convoy medics and last seen lying pale and trembling on stretchers before a Black Hawk arrived to take them away, the mood in the LAV changed. It was as though reality had sunk in.
Pte. Bayliss is a distant cousin of Toronto Police Constable Todd Bayliss, killed in the line of duty by a multiple deportee named Clinton Junior Gayle one hot summer's night about a decade ago.
He was 25.
And Daniel, well, Daniel attended Lord Lansdowne Public School, right across from my house in downtown Toronto. We had just figured that out -- that he was entering Grade 8 there the year I moved into the house and reminisced about the pizza joint that sells slices at the corner -- moments before he was struck by the cannon and came tumbling back into the LAV, his face covered in blood.
The media got the boot from FOB Robinson shortly after we arrived, when Brigadier-General David Fraser, the top commander of operations for southern Afghanistan, received fresh intelligence that led him to assess the risks there as unacceptable. It was hard to argue. "
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