# Canadian chopper assault first of its kind



## GAP (8 Mar 2009)

Canadian chopper assault first of its kind
 TheStar.com - World - Canadian chopper assault first of its kind
 March 08, 2009 THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article Link

ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan–Canadian troops have employed their own helicopters to strike at an insurgent command centre and supply base deep in the heart of Taliban territory.

Saturday's airborne assault in the restive Zhari district was the first of its kind using the newly deployed Canadian choppers.

More than 200 Canadian and American soldiers were part of the nearly 11-hour operation, sweeping mud-walled compounds and grape huts for insurgent commanders, weapons caches and bomb factories.

The troops withdrew by helicopter after uncovering a large amount of explosive-making material, a few weapons and capturing two suspected Taliban fighters.

The raid, in which there were no casualties, marked the start of a new chapter in the way Canada fights this three-year-old desert war in Kandahar province.

Canadian troops have conducted helicopter assaults before, but until now they've always been ferried into combat by either U.S., British or Dutch helicopters.
End of Article


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## Good2Golf (8 Mar 2009)

Well done.


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## Dissident (8 Mar 2009)

Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3Cc7wlfkI


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## GAP (8 Mar 2009)

Dissident said:
			
		

> Good stuff.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3Cc7wlfkI



Maybe we should donate a good sound system........ ;D


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## R933ex (8 Mar 2009)

Well done folks.. Lets keep it up


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## daftandbarmy (9 Mar 2009)

Dissident said:
			
		

> Good stuff.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3Cc7wlfkI



Nice to hear the old Regimental march again, even if it was sullied by the presence of helicopters - the ATV of the airborne world


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## OldSolduer (9 Mar 2009)

I recall flying on the Chinooks in the late 70's and early 80's near Calgary...awesome machine even then, and again in 96 in Ft Polk La.
Good work troops. I wish I could have been there.  

Keep up the good work!!


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## vonGarvin (9 Mar 2009)

We were waiting and waiting for the news to break.  It was a great feeling to have Canadian CH147's on the job.  But let us not forget the Griffons who were there throughout the day.  CHFA did a stand up job on this one.  Right from soup to nuts.


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## - m i l l e y - (9 Mar 2009)

Well done Troops, keep up the good work.
It's gives me a proud feeling knowing you are all there doing your jobs so good, and now with our own equipment.


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## mainerjohnthomas (9 Mar 2009)

http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w030867A.xml


Canadian troops launch airborne assault on Taliban command centre
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

at 20:01 on March 8, 2009, EDT.
By Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS 

ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan - Canadian troops struck deep into the heart of Taliban territory this weekend, launching an airborne assault on a suspected insurgent command centre and supply base in the restive Zhari district, the first such operation using Canadian helicopters. 

Over 200 Canadian and American soldiers took part in the nearly 11 hour operation Saturday where they swept through mud-walled compounds and thickly fortified grape huts looking for insurgent commanders, weapons caches and bomb-making factories. 

The troops withdrew by helicopter after uncovering a large amount of explosive-making material, a few weapons and capturing two suspected Taliban fighters. 

There were no casualties in the raid in the western part of the province - an assault which marked the start of a new chapter in the way Canada fights this three-year-old desert war in Kandahar province. 

However, the success was overshadowed Sunday by a roadside bombing in northern Kandahar, which killed Trooper Marc Diab and wounded four other soldiers. 

Canadian troops have conducted helicopter assaults before, but until now they've always been ferried into combat by either U.S., British or Dutch helicopters. 

The $292 million addition of six CH-47D Chinook battlefield helicopters, as stipulated in the John Manley report, gives commanders the flexibility to order more of these kinds of raids on insurgent supply lines. 

With air transport previously scarce, Canadian soldiers in the past have been forced to conduct these kinds of lightning raids by driving their noisy, lumbering armoured vehicles up the target - a manoeuvre that gave the Taliban plenty of time to know they were coming and prepare defensive positions. 

Not so this time. 

"We came in hard, we came in fast and we got on to the objective immediately," Lt. Aaron Corey, a platoon commander, with November Company, said as he sat, feet dangling over a dried up irrigation ditch. 

"We had total surprise, which no matter how hard we work at night; no matter how hard we try to be sneaky-peeky type guys, we just can't do it; especially in that size. You can move 10 or 12 guys around quietly, you can't move 120 guys around quietly at night." 

The raid began shortly after sunrise with three Chinooks - two British and one Canadian - thundering in low and dropping the troops in poppy field where the plants had just started poking through the ground. 

As he guided the helicopter to touch down in the spongy ground, the mission commander, Maj. Jonathan Knaul, couldn't help but be struck by the milestone moment. 

"This is cool," he thought to himself at the time and told reporters afterward. "This is cool. It is. I'm taking onboard Canadian soldiers and driving them where they have to go." 

The soldiers spilled out of the ramp and formed a defensive perimeter and within 90 seconds the three Chinooks of the initial wave were back in the air and pounding out over a field. They banked steeply over a dry riverbed and disappeared. 

It wasn't long after a second wave of helicopters came in that Afghan men - individually and sometimes in groups - began to appear on small hillsides and outside compounds. They stood for hours and watched, all-the-while staying well outside of rifle range. 

Helicopter gunships, in the form of two modified Canadian CH-146 Griffons, orbited protectively above the area, their door-mounted gatling guns clearly visible from the ground. 

At one point, a Griffon pilot spotted two men with plastic jugs digging in a dirt roadway, apparently trying to bury a booby trap ahead of a Canadian platoon. The helicopter dove on the men, apparently scaring them away. 

The commanding officer of November Company said the gunships made a "huge difference" and potentially forced the Taliban to keep their heads down. 

"So them being above, I really think that kept the insurgents at bay and (the helicopters) were able to paint a very good picture outside of the periphery where we couldn't see," said Maj. Rob McBride. 

Ironically, the air force had to fight to convince both the senior military establishment and the federal government to get the Griffons deployed to Afghanistan. 

As soldiers and engineers fanned to search compounds, many of the locals kept their distance and those that did have contact with the Canadians seemed petrified to be talking with them. 

One villager began shaking as engineers searched his two dried up wells - perfect spots to hide stacks of AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades. Nothing was found in the wells, but his behaviour raised eyebrows among the troops. 

Engineers uncovered 204 kilograms of fertilizer and drums of diesel fuel - both ingredients for home-made explosives - in one compound, while in an adjacent mud building detonators were discovered. Two suspected Taliban fighters were captured. 

The raid completed, the troops withdrew to a grape field, using its chest-high berms as cover. 

"We'll see the (rocket propelled grenades) come out as we leave," Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli warned as he watched two fighting age males peek around a corner at him. 

The withdrawal went smoothly, without an exchange of gunfire. 

Capt. Justin Brunelle, the forward air and artillery controller, said the attack was so far behind where they normally expect to fight, the Taliban had likely been left scrambling to find weapons. 

The fact there were no casualties was seen by Knaul as a sign that the helicopters had done their job and dealt insurgents a setback. 

"The army has got a very tough job here and we don't want them to get hurt on the roads," said Knaul, who added his crews need no reminding everyday that their job is to save lives. 


©The Canadian Press, 2009


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## Kat Stevens (9 Mar 2009)

Good to know that there were engineers there as well as soldiers...   :


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## mainerjohnthomas (9 Mar 2009)

Is anybody else getting as sick as I am about our beloved national media letting the only news of Afghanistan that makes the front page being either Canadian casualties, or some group protesting against the war?

Why is it that stories of Canadian victories with few or no casualties are not deemed newsworthy?  Why is it that stories about the successes in Afghanistan, and the progress that has been made in rebuilding are in small print in the back, or buried so deep in the links section of World News that you could only find them if you already knew to look?

When the government shapes the flow of information to deliberately create a false impression of the truth in the minds of the citizens it is called propaganda.  When the same tactics are applied by editors in a liberal press it is called what?  You can't call it Journalism if it is deliberate disinformation campaign, you can't call it Lobbying if it is being aimed at the mass of sheep, and not just at their easily influenced elected shepherds, and yet you can't call it Propaganda unless it is the government that is doing it.

I'd call it "Free Press" but that would be misleading in the sense that it is free of information, free to manipulate its coverage to forwards its own agenda, and free of any accountability for its lies and misstatements, rather than free in the sense of free from official censorship.


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## OldSolduer (9 Mar 2009)

To answer your question about the MSM, we are reaping the seeds that Moscow sowed during the Cold War. 
Stalin called those who sympathized with the USSR as "useful fools", that is, they thought the USSR was a big cuddly teddy bear and not a Grizzly with fangs and claws. Their views (the useful fools) were listened to, and fully supported by the Labor Party in Britain and our NDP and Liberal Parties. The journalists soon fell into line. We still have editors etc from that era....USA bad, USSR good.
And we don't have enough Christie Blatchfords to go around.


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## firm_believer (9 Apr 2009)

I have to agree...Why do I rarely see a positive story based upon the role that our soldiers are playing toward Afghan self-sufficiency and enabling Afghans to evolve socially? As soon as I mention joining the military, you can just see the fear in people's eyes, based upon the media's coverage of nothing but deaths amidst our armed forces. 

I appreciate the respect shown by all means, but there's a down-side to it when that's ALL the mainstream media shows, for the most part.


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## pbi (12 Apr 2009)

My take on the media coverage is this: the fact that both people on the Right and people on the Left scream and moan about how the media is controlled by "the other guys" probably indicates that the media is more or less doing its job. If only one side complained, I'd be worried.

The media is not there to make us (or anybody) happy, or necessarily even to present all the facts all the time. First of all, except for the CBC, it's a business and it will produce what sells. If it doesn't: no more business. Print newspapers are experiencing this right now as they lose more and more market share to e-media. By the time this recession is just a memory, so will be a lot of newspapers.

Second, don't discount how important the death of a Canadian soldier is  to people, and not just to us in the military. Everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, that I travel in this country I find a level of interest and concern about the military that I never ever saw before Afghanistan started (yeah...I'm one of those old guys...Number Two on the Ballista...). I have had all sorts of common Canadians in all sorts of places offer me words of support when they know I'm in the Army. I also find alot of ill-informed Canadians but-guess what? Canadians are ill informed about lots of things, so no big surprise there. And yes, I do run into a very small number of mouth-breathing idiots who spit blood and fire about us being in Afgh, but their opinions would be relatively meaningless no matter what they were ranting about. I must say that most of these latter type seem to populate the "Comments" space on CBC.ca. I'm scared sometimes by the utterly ignorant and malevolent comments that some of these dribblers post. But, hey, I guess that's freedom of speech: no IQ test required.

Third, the quality of coverage and the nature of what's said varies greatly from region to region, city to city, media outlet to media outlet across Canada.It isn't one monolithic media machine.

Finally, I think we should ask the question: what, exactly, is the nature and quality of the Government's effort to properly inform Canadians about what's going on in Afgh, other than to just react to things? I'm not including the CF in this question: I believe we have done a very good job (much, much greater than any other Govt Dept): you could almost argue that we ARE the Govt's info campaign. In particular our public speaking efforts have done alot of good.

Does the media piss me off? Yes, lots. But, that's their job. Do I wish all journalists were Christie Blatchford? Yes, but that won't happen. If we lived in a country where all the media ever did was praise the military and the government, I'd wonder if that was Canada or North Korea.




Cheers


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## Kilo_302 (12 Apr 2009)

> My take on the media coverage is this: the fact that both people on the Right and people on the Left scream and moan about how the media is controlled by "the other guys" probably indicates that the media is more or less doing its job. If only one side complained, I'd be worried.
> 
> The media is not there to make us (or anybody) happy, or necessarily even to present all the facts all the time. First of all, except for the CBC, it's a business and it will produce what sells. If it doesn't: no more business. Print newspapers are experiencing this right now as they lose more and more market share to e-media. By the time this recession is just a memory, so will be a lot of newspapers.
> 
> ...



Great to see such rationality about such a controversial subject.


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## Smirnoff123 (12 Apr 2009)

I'm glad to hear about a successful operation. And our helicopters being put to good use.


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## time expired (13 Apr 2009)

First of its kind,lets take it down a notch,first helo. assault Royal Marines
Suez 1956, lets not forget 1st Air Cav. helo air assault was the only 
reason they existed.First helo.assault by Canadians in A-stan would be a
more modest and accurate description.
                                          Regards


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## Good2Golf (13 Apr 2009)

time expired said:
			
		

> ....First helo.assault by Canadians in A-stan would be a
> more modest and accurate description.
> Regards



 :nod:  Concur, TE.  Much better description. Doesn't take away what was achieved by the Canadian aviators, but does put it in context.

G2G


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