# 'Les Boys' no strangers to action



## PMedMoe (8 Aug 2009)

For the eight soldiers who mentor and train Afghan soldiers in a harsh, volatile area commanders call the Wild West, daily contact with the enemy is just a part of life, writes Matthew Fisher.
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"Les Boys," who man this strongpoint in what Canadian commanders sometimes call the Wild West, have probably seen more combat in recent months than any other troops in Kandahar.

And if the eight soldiers from Quebec and New Brunswick who mentor about 50 Afghan soldiers at Howz-E-Madad are not at the epicentre of Canada's war in Afghanistan, fellow Canadian instructors from an operational mentoring liaison team based only three kilometres away at Lakhokel can stake a strong claim.

"This is Ground Zero. We're probably No. 1 for contact with the enemy. We're exposed to everything," Cpl. Eric Poirier of Dalhousie, N.B., says of Howz-E-Madad, where the Taliban, in a tree line 600 metres away, shoot almost every day at the small compound the Canadians and Afghans share. Taliban have also lobbed more than 30 hand grenades over the compound walls, have set ambushes just to the west of where they live, and spark firefights every second day or so.

Canada's Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) and their Afghan National Army (ANA) allies have also found about 30 improvised explosive devices before they could do damage to the soldiers or civilians living in Zhari District.

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