Video shows aftermath of Taliban landmine blast
Updated Sun. Dec. 24 2006 10:06 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Pte. Frederic Couture is recovering this Christmas season. He lost a foot to a Taliban landmine earlier this month.
However, what happened in the immediate aftermath of that horrible incident is a story of ordinary soldiers showing uncommon courage.
Couture -- a soldier in the Royal 22nd Regiment, or Vandoos of Quebec -- is nicknamed "Chest" by his comrades in arms.
They were all heading out for a meeting with village elders in Panjwaii District, where Canadians have fought some of their bloodiest battles since the Korean War.
This patrol on Dec. 16 helped kick off Operation Falcon Summit, the latest effort to keep the pressure on the Taliban in Panjwaii.
However, the area is a Taliban stronghold.
The night before, Canadian soldiers killed two Taliban fighters who were trying to lay landmines on a nearby path within 200 metres of a Canadian outpost.
What the patrol didn't know is that the path had already been mined.
As the patrol makes its way, seven Afghan soldiers pass without incident.
Couture steps on a pressure plate. The mine detonates.
The blast blows away his left foot. Shrapnel tears into his right thigh and hits his face.
"Chest! Chest!" his fellow soldiers can be heard yelling on video shot by an embedded British journalist.
Disoriented, perhaps expecting a Taliban attack, Couture drew a pistol. His patrol commander, Capt. John Benson, disarms him.
Benson, Cpl. Frederic Morrisette, the company's medic, and several others ignore the risk of other mines and rush to Couture's side.
"No! No!" Couture yells." They try to reassure Couture that he'll be all right.
"He's conscious, he's able to talk to us. He's got one leg severely injured, one leg with bad injury," one reports.
The three-year veteran tells Benson: "I'm 21 years old and I've lost my foot. What am I going to do now?"
Morrisette applied a tourniquet above where Couture's left foot had been. The shrapnel in Couture's right leg had been so hot that they immediately cauterized the wound.
The medics quickly stabilized Couture, who has quieted down. The patrol's signaller called for a helicopter to take the wounded soldier back to the base at Kandahar.
Then some of the patrol went back to the blast scene to secure it until combat engineers could check for more explosives.
Col Jean March Lanthier, the unit's commander, later praised Couture: "He showed me that he remained a steadfast soldier, a courageous fighter. He's an athlete, he's in top shape. And it showed."
Couture is one of nearly 180 Canadian soldiers wounded in combat so far this year.
However, the men believe the mission is worth the sacrifice.
"It's not something that we want to accept, but I think the benefits that we're seeing and that we're going to be seeing for the long term are worth it," Benson said.
With a report from CTV's Murray Oliver
