# Did he abandon his troops ?



## GAP (29 Dec 2006)

*Did he abandon his troops?*
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD From Friday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ZETTELMEYER, AFGHANISTAN — When Major Matthew Sprague says he is tempted to put in his whole company for awards or commendations, he isn't kidding.

So many of the officers, noncommissioned officers and ordinary grunts of the 1st Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment's Charles Company, which Major Sprague commands, have distinguished themselves under fire here in southern Afghanistan — particularly on two terrible days in September, when the company was first attacked with shocking ferocity by the Taliban, and then, still reeling from the four men lost that morning, accidentally strafed in a friendly-fire incident that killed another and injured 38 the very next day — that separating the ordinarily brave from the ridiculously courageous is difficult if not impossible.

But there is one man not included in that honourable group.

In several recent interviews, during which he properly sang the praises of his troops, Major Sprague didn't even mention his name. Asked directly about him yesterday, he would not discuss the soldier except to say tersely that he is now out of the army and that the alleged incident that led to his leaving is “in the past, as far as I'm concerned.”

The Globe and Mail has learned the man is a veteran noncommissioned officer who is alleged to have deserted his troops while they were under fire Sept. 3 and was later sent home to Canada.

The Globe has decided not to use the soldier's name, in large measure because even those who feel most betrayed are loath to see him criticized publicly.

“He left me there to die,” Master Corporal Ward Engley of Charles's 8 platoon said yesterday in a brief, blunt interview conducted in the back of a Light Armoured Vehicle that was taking him to the base at nearby Masum Ghar and then to Kandahar Air Field for emergency dental treatment.

He said the NCO was “hiding behind a wall” and wouldn't come out long enough to give him the radio when he asked for it. 

“Our grenades were duds,” MCpl. Engley said, contempt colouring his voice, “and we were running low on ammo, but he couldn't even hand me the radio.”

MCpl. Engley is not the only soldier to characterize what happened that morning as desertion.

It was described the same way by three other soldiers interviewed by The Globe, including two of those who were pinned down by heavy fire when the NCO is alleged to have left his post, and the 25-year-old officer who commands 8 platoon.

In army language, MCpl. Engley said, what the NCO did was “shit the bed hard.”

The offensive against the notorious White School — a known Taliban stronghold in the volatile Panjwai area since last summer, when the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry suffered casualties there — was part of the kickoff to Operation Medusa, the massive, Canadian-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization campaign.

While ultimately deemed a major success, with as many as 1,000 Taliban claimed killed and senior NATO commanders singing its praises in speeches, Medusa was arguably a bit of a cock-up from the get-go.

Originally, battle orders called for three days of heavy bombing and artillery, plus 18 air strikes on Taliban commanders identified as “high-value targets,” before the soldiers of Charles Company were to move into the area, then lush with three-metre-tall marijuana fields and nearly impenetrable.

But at the last minute, after intelligence supposedly reported no signs of the enemy, the bombings and air strikes were called off. The soldiers were ordered to cross the Arghandab River early on the morning of Sept. 3.

“Our orders came in saying there would be three days of bombarding the shit out of it, and then they cancelled all that and then we rolled in at 7 in the morning,” said Private Will Needham, a 22-year-old from Toronto. “. . . We rolled in, drove right into an ambush site, and it was told to us the night before that this grid was basically an ambush site.”

Originally, in fact, the troops were supposed to cross the river on foot — “dismounted,” as they call it — because it was thought their LAVs would be unable to cross. But those orders, too, disappeared, with combat engineers making “breaches” across the river for the vehicles.

As described by Lieutenant Jeremy Hiltz, the 8 platoon boss, MCpl. Engley, Pte. Needham and Pte. Travis Rawls, a 31-year-old from 8 platoon, the scene as they first crossed the river was eerie — as still “as when I'm skydiving,” MCpl. Engley said.

“We knew, deep down inside,” Lt. Hiltz told The Globe. “We knew they [the Taliban] were there. . . . But it's still quiet, and there's no indication that anything's wrong, except for guys are looking at each other, there's that feeling.

“But I think at that point, we're still pretty young and I think a lot of guys didn't recognize it.”

The troops of 8 platoon dismounted, and what greeted them were the leaflets that had been dropped from the air before the start of Op Medusa — pamphlets warning the Taliban, and civilians in the area, that NATO forces were coming.

MCpl. Engley's section was ordered to secure a big ditch, he said, and it was from there that “all of a sudden, the whole world exploded around us” — rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, rounds from lethal 81 mm recoilless rifles, machine-gun fire coming at the soldiers from what seemed like all directions.

It wasn't until more than a week later, when the Canadians actually secured the area around the White School, that they realized the enormity of what they had been up against, Lt. Hiltz said.

The Taliban had “trench lines, ditches, bunkers, firing holes. I mean, they were firing from trees, firing from pot fields, explosions were coming from pot fields looked like mortars but they were actually RPGs impacting at ground level. They were watching our antennas go by and firing from pot fields,” from as close as 100 metres.

MCpl. Engley's section, meantime, was ordered to leave the ditch and do a room-by-room search of four small mud-walled buildings near the White School.

It was there, Pte. Needham said, that “we pretty much got pinned down by RPGs and small-arms fire, which was coming mostly from the south.”

Pte. Rawls said it was at that point the NCO is alleged to have claimed to be hit, then left them behind, saying he was off to get them support.

“I didn't have a fucking clue he was even gone, he wasn't really the command-and-control leader,” Pte. Needham snapped.

Lt. Hiltz was equally blunt: He “basically deserted, left the section while a couple of guys were pinned down.”

Privates Needham and Rawls were on the right side of one building, two reservists were on the left, and other members of the section were spread out throughout the little compound, all of them “putting down fire.”

They couldn't tell where the enemy fire was originating from, couldn't even tell if they were receiving friendly fire from other platoons. It was very confusing, Pte. Rawls said, and they couldn't raise anyone on the radio to tell them where they were trapped, or find out where the other platoons were located.

On top of that, a 225-kilogram bomb was dropped almost on top of the section. “Basically, it was being called right on top of us,” Pte. Rawls said. But the bomb either malfunctioned or its GPS system rendered it inert, as it is supposed to if it goes off target.

When the order to withdraw eventually came from Major Sprague, the soldiers were too far from their LAV to retreat safely. In the end, the section was pinned down for two to three hours.

It was Sergeant Graeme Ferrier, driving up and down the line looking for stragglers, who found them. They were the last out to safety, and only afterward did they learn that their beloved warrant officer, Frank Mellish, his fellow warrant Rick Nolan, combat engineer Sergeant Shane Stachnik and Pte. Needham's former roommate and best friend, Pte. Will Cushley, had been killed.

Their section has since been rebuilt with replacements from CFB Petawawa, but as Pte. Rawls said, “They arrived after all of that. When we arrived, same as everybody who gets here, you train as infanteer and you want to come and get in on the action and you get into it like that, and it's a mess like that, and you don't want to ever see it again.

“They don't know what that's like yet. If they find that out, probably when they lose a friend.”

And Pte. Needham said, “That's the only way you really realize. I knew it was going to be bad, but I never thought someone I knew would get killed. I never knew it would be like this. Like September was the worst month ever, we lost a lot of good people. I didn't think it would be this bad.

“And it was.”

He continued, “We had been on ground in this country for three weeks. Most people hadn't been in a firefight. We'd been ambushed once and fired twice, but it was a lot of inexperienced men going into a huge combat situation. . . it was overwhelming for a bunch of people who didn't have the experience. That's what it comes down to, I guess.”

Both Privates Needham and Rawls said that if they stay in the army, they will switch units because of the “incompetence” they've seen here.

Coming to Afghanistan, Pte. Rawls said, the big concern was “about everyone around you. Are they gonna do their job? And are you?”

They have their answers now.

cblatchford@globeandmail.com
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## Garett (29 Dec 2006)

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061229/afghanistan_nco_061229/20061229?hub=TopStories

NCO sent home after Afghanistan incident: report

Updated Fri. Dec. 29 2006 1:34 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A report says a veteran Canadian non-commissioned officer was sent home from Afghanistan after an incident that some of his troops characterize as desertion.

Several members of the 1st Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment's Charlie Company told The Globe and Mail they were abandoned while pinned down by heavy Taliban fire on Sept. 3. Four Canadians soldiers died that day in fierce battles with insurgents.

One soldier told the Globe in an interview in southern Afghanistan that his superior hid behind a wall and left him there to die. The Globe chose note to identify the NCO.

He was later returned home and is now out of the army.

Canadian military spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Kris Phillips says he can't substantiate the report. He does say though that the officer did suffer injuries on that day and, as a result, was medically repatriated and decided to "take his release a little later on.''

Phillips says there were no charges laid or disciplinary action taken against the officer.

Maj. Matthew Sprague, who commands Charlie Company, would not discuss the soldier with the Globe, except to say that the soldier is now out of the army and that the alleged incident that led to his leaving is "in the past, as far as I'm concerned."

Master Cpl. Ward Engley of Charlie Company's 8 platoon told the Globe that the NCO was "hiding behind a wall" while they came under fire and wouldn't come out long enough to give him the radio when he asked for it. He alleged the officer "left me there to die."  

"Our grenades were duds," Engley explained, "and we were running low on ammo, but he couldn't even hand me the radio."

The Globe says three other soldiers gave similar stories, including two of those who were pinned down by heavy fire when the NCO is alleged to have left his post.

He "basically deserted, left the section while a couple of guys were pinned down," alleged another soldier, Lt. Jeremy Hiltz.

The battle was part of the NATO kickoff to Operation Medusa, a massive offensive targeting a Taliban stronghold in the volatile Panjwaii area.

Five Canadians lost their lives during the operation, and dozens more were wounded, including Sprague who was hit by shrapnel during a friendly fire incident on Sept. 4, the day after the gunfight.

Sprague, like many of the wounded soldiers, returned to action immediately after recovering from injury.

The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford, who reported the story, says that, in a way, she has sympathy for the NCO involved.

"This incident and the name of this man are well-known at the base in Petawawa and in the sort of soldier community already," she told CTV Newsnet. "So I'm sure that he is suffering.

"I feel very badly for him, actually," she added, noting that an incident such as the one she described "happens in war. It always has."


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## Bruce Monkhouse (30 Dec 2006)

Ex-soldier tells his side of the story
GREG MCARTHUR From Saturday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061230.wxsoldier30/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

A former non-commissioned officer in the Canadian Armed Forces accused of abandoning his troops in an Afghanistan firefight says he stands by his actions and wakes up every morning with “self respect.”

The former soldier was in charge of a small group of Canadian soldiers that were among those ambushed in a Panjwai district marijuana field on Sept. 3 — the same ambush that claimed the lives of four Canadians.

In yesterday's Globe and Mail, four soldiers still in Afghanistan spoke out against their former commander, alleging that he froze in battle and fled from a mud-hut compound while a handful of his charges were pinned down by enemy fire. None of the soldiers who died that day were part of the firefight in question.

In an interview yesterday, the non-commissioned officer offered his side of the story, explaining that he had to leave the battle three times for various reasons: to reposition his section's light-armoured vehicle so it could open fire on Taliban gunmen, to check why the vehicle's 25-millimetre cannon was malfunctioning and to find a C6 gunner to help provide cover fire. He spoke to The Globe on condition of anonymity.

“My guys did great. They kept their heads down. They didn't move. They didn't freak out. When I told them to throw grenades, they did,” he said.

“Now of course, now that it's after the fact, I realize they didn't necessarily know what I was doing — and that might have clouded their judgment,” he said, explaining that many of them saw him leave and likely asked “Where the hell is [he] going?”

Part of the problem, he explained, was that his radio broke, which meant he couldn't speak with the light-armoured vehicle from inside the compound.

“My choice at that time was real simple. Either I tell one of my privates or corporals to get up during a firefight and run 15 or 20 metres and try to do something for me. Or I leave them exactly where they are covering their arcs, and then I do it.

“I needed to make sure that stuff was being done properly, I figured the best bet was to do it myself . . . Basically, it's being thrown back in my face. That's cool. It's all part of the job I guess.”

The soldier has since resigned from the military, a move that he says was prompted by a number of reasons. 

Shortly after the firefight, he was wounded and flown back to Canada. Before he left, he was called in by a captain who asked him to sign a “note to file” — the military's equivalent of a blotch on an employment record.

He didn't get the chance to defend himself, he says, and when he found out he was going to be reassigned, he decided to pack in his long military career. 

“It makes my stomach turn every time I talk about it,” said the middle-aged father, whose own father was a military man.

He also had personal reasons for resigning, he said.

“Being shot at isn't the greatest thing in the world, neither is being shot. After being wounded, I wanted to be around and spend time with my [family] as opposed to going overseas and make some extra money.”

He said a campaign is being waged against him by another soldier in his former section, who he accused of misleading his former charges. That soldier has openly accused him of abandoning him.

The former non-commissioned officer sees it differently. He alleges that, when he ordered his section to retreat to their vehicle, this particular soldier didn't listen and blasted the marijuana fields with cover fire.

He says he yelled at his charge, “What the hell are you doing? I told you to get in the vehicle,” but his subordinate refused to stop, so he left him.

The two have been long enemies, he said. He called his former subordinate “Mr. I-get-to-be-in-the-centre-of-attention.

“If I had shown some kind of gross cowardice under fire, don't you think I would have been immediately relieved of command?” he asked rhetorically. “I wasn't. There was no formal charges of any kind.”

But in previous interviews conducted by The Globe and Mail, other soldiers back in Canada have called the former non-commissioned officer's decisions into question. 

When the ambush began, he ordered the troops to dismount. That rendered the light-armoured vehicle's cannon useless, because any fire would endanger Canadian troops, said Private Francois LePage, the man behind the cannon that day.

Pte. LePage said he could see movement around the compound and was itching to open fire, but couldn't. He kept yelling, “I see him. I see him,” and was repeatedly told by a superior, “Stop saying you see him. I know you see him.”

“It pissed me off because we could have killed them all,” Pte. LePage told The Globe in an October interview.

However, the former non-commissioned officer said the orders to dismount came from his superiors, Major Matthew Sprague and Lieutenant Jeremy Hiltz.

There were lots of things that went wrong on Sept. 3, the former non-commissioned officer said, especially the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's decision to drop leaflets on the village of Pashmul and give the Taliban advance warning of their arrival. That decision allowed them to plan an ambush, he said, but instead, he's become the fall guy.

“As far as I'm concerned, the guys are great guys and no matter what is written, ultimately it's going to hurt morale. If that means I get to be the bad guy because I'm out of the military and a [civilian], then I'll be the bad guy. I don't mind that.”
End


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## Bruce Monkhouse (30 Dec 2006)

Folks, this thread is cleansed and closed. As "public domain" information comes out it may go up here, or it may not. We will not be doing/saying/thinking any kind of speculation or references to peoples identities.

If you think this is unfair, that's tough. Final answer.
Thank you,
Moderating Staff


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## Michael OLeary (30 Dec 2006)

Related article, including reference to comments at Army.ca:

Desertion allegation military’s business
Dad of soldier killed in firefight doesn’t want to rush to judgment
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/550004.html


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