Copyright
Copyright Ron Corbett, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Project Editor: Michael Carroll
Editor: Cheryl Hawley
Design: Jesse Hooper
Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Corbett, Ron, 1959-
First soldiers down [electronic resource] : Canadas friendly fire deaths in Afghanistan / Ron Corbett ; foreword by Pat Stogran.
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4597-0329-2
1. Friendly fire (Military science)--Afghanistan. 2. Afghan War, 2001- --Aerial operations, American. 3. Canada--Armed Forces--Afghanistan. 4. Canada. Canadian Armed Forces. Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry. 5. Canada--Military relations--United States. 6. United States--Military relations--Canada. I. Title.
DS371.4.C57 2012 958.1047 C2011-908029-X
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
www.dundurn.com
FOREWORD
It is my privilege to have played a part in the now-historical Operation APOLLO. I think APOLLO was a landmark mission for Canada and it is a testament to the legacy of service and professionalism in the Canadian Forces, built by our veterans and being perpetuated by those who continue to answer the call and make the sacrifices for our country. I also feel that the so-called friendly fire incident is a very important event in our ever-evolving military history.
Op APOLLO was Canadas first military engagement in a new security environment similar to the new security environment precipitated by the former-Soviet Union that resulted in the formation of NATO in 1949. Unlike the industrial-style warfare that characterized the Cold War, Op APOLLO was the threshold of an era of information-age warfare. International terrorists and transnational criminals now pose serious threats to all legitimate nation states. With access to huge sums of money from narcotic trade, they now have access to technology for weapons of mass destruction, broadband global communications, high-speed worldwide travel, and satellite imagery capabilities that used to be the sole domain of national military organizations.
Sometimes described as a global insurgency, terrorists are capable of hijacking entire countries, such as Afghanistan, and inflicting monstrous destruction and havoc, like they did on 9-11. To the innocent civilians whom they hide among, their actions are portrayed as a popular, albeit perverted, war of ideals. This type of warfare has displaced the industrial-style mass destruction that emerged from the world wars of the twentieth century.
This war is being waged as much in the minds of everybody as it is on the battlefield; our tolerance for casualties and collateral damage is virtually non-existent. We know and will always remember the first Canadians who were killed in action: Sergeant Marc Lger, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, and Privates Nathan Smith and Richard Green.
Ive helped others who have written about the friendly fire incident, but I am always willing to engage. I have come to believe that nobodys personal perspective ever reflects ground truth, not even my own. Many times I have unabashedly thrown down the gauntlet of my take on issues and events, not so much to draw a line in the sand, but more as an invitation to others to shape my perception on reality. Thats why I initially agreed to help Ron with his project.
Since I agreed to work with him, I told Ron virtually everything I could remember about the historic rendezvous with destiny of the Apollo-Rakkasans and the notorious friendly fire incident from my point of view and handed over all of the notes and clippings that I held onto for posterity. To round out his appreciation of the incident I introduced him to as many of the people from the Apollo-Rakkasan Battle Group as I could, encouraging them all to contribute their unabashed recollections and opinions the good the bad and the ugly so that history would have a broad and uncensored record of what transpired in 2002.
Ron has taken this project much further than simply chronicling the events surrounding the incident or regurgitating the points of view of those involved. He has reached out to the families and friends of the victims to create a human portrayal of a watershed event that reads more like a novel than a military history book, but it is much more than that. I have often said that losing ones life is the penultimate sacrifice that a person makes for his or her country. The ultimate sacrifice is made by the friends and families of our fallen and disabled heroes, whose lives are irreparably shattered by tragedy and the pain that they have to endure forever. This is an assessment on the Afghan Mission not by politicians and generals, but by some of Canadas so-called collateral damage the people who matter most in information-age warfare.
Canada has the potential to be a global superpower in this world war of influence, but only if we embrace the precept of Sun Tzus bloodless victories in war. Sergeant Lger, Corporal Dyer, Privates Smith and Green, their comrades, and the tens of thousands of Canadians who followed them to Afghanistan went there to promote the Canadian way of community and self-sacrifice, and to offer the Afghan people a chance to be free of tyranny. Their families were right there beside them, as were all Canadians. Let this book serve as a reminder of how great the cost is, but also how important peace is.
COLONEL PAT STOGRAN, RETIRED
FORMER VETERANS OMBUDSMAN
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
PROLOGUE
The diner is nearly empty, the lunch crowd long gone. Only one waitress is left working, wiping down tables and folding newspapers.
This is the Western Sentinel , the week after it happened, says Pat Stogran, pushing a newspaper across the table. The front-page photo shows soldiers in maroon berets carrying a metal casket. Its not a bad story. A lot of the comments made at the time the governor general, the prime minister theyre all in there.
