Teddy Ruxpin
Army.ca Veteran
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http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/227826
Vehicle no match for a roadside bomb
The unarmoured Gator should never have been allowed to travel on roads of Kandahar
June 21, 2007
Rosie Dimanno
Columnist
It's little more than the military version of a putt-putt buggy and no reason imaginable exists for the go-devil venturing off-base.
The open-top all-terrain vehicle – makes the thing sound far more sophisticated than it is – in which three Canadian soldiers were killed yesterday should never have been on the dangerous roads of Kandahar.
This is a conveyance used by troops for on-site transportation, meaning short excursions inside areas protected by snipers, high-tech sensors, sandbag bunkers and armed sentries.
It is no match for a roadside bomb.
Either someone got tragically careless or standing operational orders are catastrophically out of sync with realities on the ground in southern Afghanistan. Either way, it's difficult to reconcile with the intense security arrangements by which Canadian troops live – and die – in Kandahar.
Resupply convoys that service forward operating bases and power points – often including transport trucks and personnel carriers – don't move an inch outside compounds unless covered by heavily armed escort vehicles. It is staggeringly incomprehensible, a catastrophic lapse in judgment, that the unarmed wagon known as a Gator – little different from a John Deere tractor – was allowed to leave the safety of Sperwan Ghar in order to resupply a checkpoint, if the description of events is correct.
Sperwan Ghar is a strongly fortified satellite west of Kandahar City, just south of the Arghandab River. On the other side is Zhari District, site of fierce fighting last summer between coalition forces and the neo-Taliban but also a region that remains perilous as insurgent cadres move around.
Earlier yesterday, Canadian and Afghan soldiers battled insurgents in Zhari for four hours. Combat there arose as a result of Operation Season, intended to disrupt the Taliban presence and subdue ambushes against allied forces and Afghan police along Highway 1.
Sperwan Ghar is a stone's throw from that area. It's no place to be out in the open in a vulnerable dune buggy when enemy forces are targeting coalition troops.
This one was allegedly travelling along a track between two Canadian checkpoints when it struck the IED. Sperwan Ghar reaches out in tentacles to power-point studs and police checkpoints – the lonely outposts manned largely by Afghan police and Afghan National Army soldiers.
Canadian troops routinely patrol highway segments, but always, in this reporter's experience, in at least modest force. Canadian troops, often on foot, regularly check the tarmac and berms for planted devices. Radar and thermal imaging also keeps 24-hour guard for movement within a considerable range.
"A determined enemy clearly was able to penetrate the defences and the observation in the area to plant this device,'' Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of Canadian forces in Kandahar, told reporters yesterday.
Grant said the vehicle had been struck between two checkpoints a short distance apart, six kilometres west of Sperwan Ghar. He rejected media speculation that the region was an inappropriate venue for the Gator, a vehicle most commonly used for shuttling provisions and equipment up the steep hill at Ghundy Ghar and across the expanse of Sperwan Ghar.
"This vehicle has been used regularly to do resupply missions between some of the checkpoints outside of the forward operating bases,'' said Grant.
Those who've spent time in the region know that this is simply untrue. It is, at minimum, a rarity for the Gator to be used for that purpose. Commanders have more sense than exposing soldiers that way. Sixty Canadian troops have now died in Afghanistan, improvised explosive devices responsible for a third of those casualties.
Yet Grant insisted the Gator was fit for the task, with the terrain – compounds of high mud dwellings amidst poppy fields – unsuitable for larger, armoured vehicles. But Nyalas can manoeuvre almost everywhere, with the exception of narrow village pathways. A review of procedures and equipment used will be conducted, Grant added.
"If we determine that we need to change our tactics, techniques and procedures, we will do that," he said
"But at the current time, we look at this as an unfortunate accident.''
No, it was most decidedly not an accident. It was a blast from the enemy.
I'm somewhat annoyed by this. The reporter in question has written some decent pieces from theatre and has proven to be a fairly rational and unbiased source, but this is a bit over the top.
The reporter is out of her lane. She has no idea - zero - of what drove the tactical decision by commanders on the ground to employ the vehicle in question. She has not been in the exact location where the attack occurred and has no professional credentials - aside from a couple of trips to theatre - to support any of her conclusions. She is engaging in speculation that will undoubtedly fuel more controversy; indeed, her comments may be designed to do just that.
If mistakes were made, the chain of command will investigate, identify, and address them. Determining whether a tactical decision was "careless" or "catestrophically out of sync" is hardly a reporter's job and is hardly the role of the media. Leave the job of soldiering to soldiers, if you please.
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/227826
Vehicle no match for a roadside bomb
The unarmoured Gator should never have been allowed to travel on roads of Kandahar
June 21, 2007
Rosie Dimanno
Columnist
It's little more than the military version of a putt-putt buggy and no reason imaginable exists for the go-devil venturing off-base.
The open-top all-terrain vehicle – makes the thing sound far more sophisticated than it is – in which three Canadian soldiers were killed yesterday should never have been on the dangerous roads of Kandahar.
This is a conveyance used by troops for on-site transportation, meaning short excursions inside areas protected by snipers, high-tech sensors, sandbag bunkers and armed sentries.
It is no match for a roadside bomb.
Either someone got tragically careless or standing operational orders are catastrophically out of sync with realities on the ground in southern Afghanistan. Either way, it's difficult to reconcile with the intense security arrangements by which Canadian troops live – and die – in Kandahar.
Resupply convoys that service forward operating bases and power points – often including transport trucks and personnel carriers – don't move an inch outside compounds unless covered by heavily armed escort vehicles. It is staggeringly incomprehensible, a catastrophic lapse in judgment, that the unarmed wagon known as a Gator – little different from a John Deere tractor – was allowed to leave the safety of Sperwan Ghar in order to resupply a checkpoint, if the description of events is correct.
Sperwan Ghar is a strongly fortified satellite west of Kandahar City, just south of the Arghandab River. On the other side is Zhari District, site of fierce fighting last summer between coalition forces and the neo-Taliban but also a region that remains perilous as insurgent cadres move around.
Earlier yesterday, Canadian and Afghan soldiers battled insurgents in Zhari for four hours. Combat there arose as a result of Operation Season, intended to disrupt the Taliban presence and subdue ambushes against allied forces and Afghan police along Highway 1.
Sperwan Ghar is a stone's throw from that area. It's no place to be out in the open in a vulnerable dune buggy when enemy forces are targeting coalition troops.
This one was allegedly travelling along a track between two Canadian checkpoints when it struck the IED. Sperwan Ghar reaches out in tentacles to power-point studs and police checkpoints – the lonely outposts manned largely by Afghan police and Afghan National Army soldiers.
Canadian troops routinely patrol highway segments, but always, in this reporter's experience, in at least modest force. Canadian troops, often on foot, regularly check the tarmac and berms for planted devices. Radar and thermal imaging also keeps 24-hour guard for movement within a considerable range.
"A determined enemy clearly was able to penetrate the defences and the observation in the area to plant this device,'' Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, commander of Canadian forces in Kandahar, told reporters yesterday.
Grant said the vehicle had been struck between two checkpoints a short distance apart, six kilometres west of Sperwan Ghar. He rejected media speculation that the region was an inappropriate venue for the Gator, a vehicle most commonly used for shuttling provisions and equipment up the steep hill at Ghundy Ghar and across the expanse of Sperwan Ghar.
"This vehicle has been used regularly to do resupply missions between some of the checkpoints outside of the forward operating bases,'' said Grant.
Those who've spent time in the region know that this is simply untrue. It is, at minimum, a rarity for the Gator to be used for that purpose. Commanders have more sense than exposing soldiers that way. Sixty Canadian troops have now died in Afghanistan, improvised explosive devices responsible for a third of those casualties.
Yet Grant insisted the Gator was fit for the task, with the terrain – compounds of high mud dwellings amidst poppy fields – unsuitable for larger, armoured vehicles. But Nyalas can manoeuvre almost everywhere, with the exception of narrow village pathways. A review of procedures and equipment used will be conducted, Grant added.
"If we determine that we need to change our tactics, techniques and procedures, we will do that," he said
"But at the current time, we look at this as an unfortunate accident.''
No, it was most decidedly not an accident. It was a blast from the enemy.
I'm somewhat annoyed by this. The reporter in question has written some decent pieces from theatre and has proven to be a fairly rational and unbiased source, but this is a bit over the top.
The reporter is out of her lane. She has no idea - zero - of what drove the tactical decision by commanders on the ground to employ the vehicle in question. She has not been in the exact location where the attack occurred and has no professional credentials - aside from a couple of trips to theatre - to support any of her conclusions. She is engaging in speculation that will undoubtedly fuel more controversy; indeed, her comments may be designed to do just that.
If mistakes were made, the chain of command will investigate, identify, and address them. Determining whether a tactical decision was "careless" or "catestrophically out of sync" is hardly a reporter's job and is hardly the role of the media. Leave the job of soldiering to soldiers, if you please.
