# Mothers Day in Afghanistan



## tomahawk6 (13 May 2007)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/print_article.html?story=835150

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan — Sean Boak’s parents would be proud.

A day before Mother’s Day, the 26-year-old Royal Canadian Dragoon was promoted to the rank of captain at the base of a jagged mountain range before embarking on a bone-jarring and at times nerve-rattling patrol of remote villages in southeastern Afghanistan, pledging to keep farmers and their families safe.

Two separate troops of soldiers were readying for an early-morning patrol Saturday when Boak stepped briskly forward to receive a new epaulet from Col. Steve Cadden, the commanding officer of the Dragoons.

"I can’t think of a better place to do this, under the sun" Cadden smiled as the morning light broke and he fixed the new decoration on Boak’s combat shirt.

"Sure beats a field parade."

Even though he dismissed the morning’s promotion as routine, Boak said he planned to call his parents as soon as his shift ended.

"They would have liked to have seen it," he said of the impromptu ceremony.

"They’re typical parents; they’re proud of any accomplishment, whether it’s routine or not."

After a round of back-slaps, handshakes and good-natured ribbing — Boak apparently has a lot of beer to buy when the Dragoons get back to their base in Petawawa, Ont. — the soldiers of 2 Troop, Reconnaissance Squadron climbed into their Coyote armoured vehicles and fanned out across the rock-dotted moonscape at the edge of the steamy Registan desert, just a few scant kilometres from the Pakistan border.

Soon, Boak was shaking hands with local men gathered with their sons in the shade of mud-walled huts or tending to their grape fields as the show of Canadian military muscle attracted crowds of children in a region that hasn’t seen much of a coalition presence in months, if at all.

At another stop, a crowd of about a dozen men and boys of varied ages crowded around the soldiers, some chuckling at the sight of Cpl. Rich Fagan, 40, of Shediac, N.B., who was coated in a thick layer of Afghanistan’s infamous, powder-fine dust after several hours with his head poked out the hatch of his Coyote.

"They were laughing at him, telling him to go wash," one of the soldiers grinned later. "That’s pretty bad, when the locals are telling you to go wash."

Boak, however, was thinking about Capt. Trevor Greene — who attended the University of King’s College in Halifax —and who suffered a serious head injury when he was attacked with an axe during an identical fact-finding mission in March 2006.

"He got attacked from behind doing exactly what I was doing," Boak said.

"It can get a little nervous — I got a little nervous this afternoon. All of them today were really, really nice, so it wasn’t too bad — but it just takes that one to make you have a really bad day, so to speak."

As night fell, sentries on an all-night security vigil slowly circled the observation post while some of the soldiers reflected on their experience in Afghanistan and on their plans to call home Sunday on Mother’s Day.

To a man — especially the young ones — the soldiers describe Afghanistan and meeting its people as a life-changing experience that the average Canadian simply can’t grasp without having experienced it.

"Canadians are so insulated," said Trooper Steve Davidson, 20, from Winnipeg. "They have grocery stores where they can go and buy fresh celery and carrots and stuff. These people have nothing . . . It changes your perspective."

Trooper Zak Wilson, 22, of New Glasgow put it best.

"I never told my mom I loved her until I came here," he said quietly. "Now it’s always, ‘OK, bye, Mom, I love you.’ "


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