Boots stamped and bagpipes blared at Edmonton Garrison this week as the Governor General conferred a rare honour upon the Princess Patricias.
David Johnston conferred the Commander-in-Chief's Unit Commendation upon the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), in a large ceremony Monday. The award, also given to soldiers who served with 1 PPCLI at the time, was given for the unit's service in Afghanistan from January to August 2006.
1 PPCLI served in Afghanistan that year as part of Task Force Orion, which had Canadian troops (most of them from 1 PPCLI) securing the country's south for NATO. This involved months of intense battle and led to the deaths of 19 Canadian soldiers.
The award, which has been given to just three units since its creation in 2000, recognizes extraordinary acts by a unit in extremely hazardous war-like conditions. It consists of a scroll and a pennant, the latter of which features the Vice-Regal lion (a crowned lion bearing a maple leaf) upon a sea of navy blue, red and light blue. Soldiers in the unit also get a pin that features a gold bar with the Vice-Regal lion on it.
Johnson said he was amazed when he read the unit's citation, as the Patricias had been involved in 29 different operations in eight months, fighting almost constantly. "Your tenacity is outstanding."
He said he hoped this award would remind Canadians of what soldiers do for their nation. "On behalf of all Canadians, I thank you for your devotion to duty."
Harsh conditions
Lt.-Col. William Fletcher, the St. Albert resident who now commands 1 PPCLI, said he was glad the award was going to everyone in the task force. "This really represents the teamwork that was involved," he said. "It's not about the 1st Battalion. It's about the battle group."
Fletcher served as a major with the task force in 2006 and received Canada's second-ever Star of Military Valour for his efforts.
Soldiers saw a lot of combat during that mission, he said, with major gun battles breaking out at least once a week. Taliban forces had sent a wave of fighters into the region in an apparent attempt to disrupt NATO efforts. "I certainly expected hit-and-run guerrilla stuff," he said, but he also got a lot of large-scale, face-to-face conflict.
He said he was initially caught off-guard by the harsh conditions he faced in Afghanistan. "Throw on top of that someone who's fairly keen on killing you and running you out of the country, [and] clearly that makes it a bit difficult."
Soldiers spent about 200 of 250 days in the field running from place to place putting out hot spots, said Cpl. Eric Hjalmarson, 59. "We were on hard rations the whole time we were there."
Soldiers slept in the mud, fending off sand fleas. Fresh food was maybe a box of apples every few weeks.
"Your senses are on a knife's edge the whole time you're over there," he said. "You're never so much alive as when you're so close to death."
Big improvement
Just 700,000 children went to school in Afghanistan a decade ago, Johnston said, few of them girls. "Today, there are 5 million going to school," he said, about a quarter of which are girls.
Conditions have greatly improved since 2006, Hjalmarson said, as roads, schools and other new buildings have started to crop up. "They're coming together as a country."
Troops coming back from recent tours say they hardly recognize the place, Fletcher said. "Aside from the physical landmarks, there are very few similarities."
People are living in places that were ghost towns, he said, and face-to-face fights have been replaced by ambushes and improvised explosive devices. Soldiers are able to focus more on working with locals instead of fighting with enemies. "We're doing now in 2010 what we hoped to do in 2006."
Canada has accomplished a lot in Afghanistan, Fletcher said, but the Patricias still have more work to do — soldiers from the unit will likely be asked to train Afghan soldiers in 2011. "We're going to be very busy."
