CIVPOL Diary: Soldiering On

By Supt. Joe McAllister

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Well, its been one of those weeks that will go down in the history books – for many reasons. We've been told the prison break was a record for the biggest escape ever. Along with the corrections officer here I went to the prison the next day to see the damage, see what was being done and offer assistance if necessary. In fairly rapid order, they put some temporary blocks up and rebuilding is under way. Afghan forces are still investigating all aspects of this event
 
The rest of the week was pretty chockfull. Sadly, our team suffered a pretty devastating blow on Saturday morning. Our American PMT that lives and works with us here at Camp Nathan Smith took a bad hit. They were out near one of our bases and hit a massive improvised explosive device (IED). This thing was huge. It cut the road in half, took out three vehicles, including an RG33, which is a 25-ton truck built for this type of thing. From that explosion the ensuing ambush took on the convoy.

We lost four of our close friends, including their team leader, L.Col Jim Walton. Jim was my counterpart here at the PRT. He and I mentored the Provincial Chief of Police together, attended all the Focused District Development (FDD) meetings, planned out how we were going to mentor and train Kandahar city and most importantly, we played hockey together here on our camp team.

Jim was a stalwart soldier, professional to the core and as sociable as anyone I know. Last week, we were playing hockey and our goalie didn't show up. When no one else volunteered, Jim stepped in to play. He never complained, he wanted to see success and was a willing partner in this battle to win over the Afghans and train their people. Killed in action were: L.Col Jim Walton, Specialist Anthony Manqano, Sgt. Nelson Rodriquez Ramirez, and Sgt Andrew Seabrooks.

Jim's team is comprised of 16 guys and to lose anyone, let alone that many in one shot is a huge blow. We all share the same office space and work the city together. You can imagine how this impacted us as well. But like true professionals, we had our time to mourn and then get back to business. It is the nature of this business and it’s also good healing to keep busy, and busy we are.
 
This week is hectic with a couple of shuras (village councils) to attend to, meetings with the police chief, working on expanding our training centre, and regular patrols. We also have a course going on and FDD cycle three graduates this Thursday, so we have to be prepared for them when they come out.

We are seeing a bit of progress now as some of the buildings Canada has finished are now going to be occupied by newly trained and equipped officers. They will have brand new furniture and will be able to take pride in their profession.

We were out at substation eight today. Just four months ago this was just the side of a mountain. It is now a splashy new building, right in a suburban Kandahar neighborhood. It overlooks a lush valley to the north, has a nice mountain back drop behind it and a view of the blue mosque and Kandahar University to the west.
 
This is just one of six substations in the city we have built, along with a number out in Zhari and Panjwayi.   Ideally, these new locations, along with better training and new equipment will help get the Afghan National Police in a better position to serve the people. 
 
Our camp is currently on a blackout after 8:00 p.m. This is a good thing as we own the night with our technology. But it does make finding the bathroom challenging at times. All said, the lads are in good shape with a couple heading out for well earned vacations.

Cheers to all.
 
Joe