IDNUMBER 200807110045
PUBLICATION: Times Colonist (Victoria)
DATE: 2008.07.11
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A11
ILLUSTRATION: Photo: Graham Thompson, Canwest News Service / Master SeamanYin-yee Yip gamely attempts to finish her third bottle of maple syrup on a dare with fellow soldiers during a pancake breakfast to celebrate the Calgary Stampede at Kandahar Airfield yesterday. Yip downed two-and-a-half bottles before giving up the challenge. ;
DATELINE: KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan
BYLINE: Graham Thomson
SOURCE: Canwest News Service
WORD COUNT: 220
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Yeehaw! Afghan Stampede enlivens Kandahar base
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Nobody wore a cowboy hat and there wasn't a horse in sight, but everyone who turned up for Calgary Stampede Days in Kandahar was carrying a real gun.
Canadian soldiers held a pancake breakfast at the Kandahar Airfield yesterday to celebrate the Stampede, and used the occasion to informally thank American helicopter pilots for saving a Canadian convoy from a suicide bombing attack on July 2.
"It was pretty scary," said Pte. Phelycia Black, who was driving one of Canada's new Mercedes-Benz armoured trucks on her first trip outside the wire when the incident occurred. "We were on a gravel road, so it was dusty. All we saw was a dark vehicle coming to our left."
Americans flying as lookouts above the convoy could see exactly what was about to happen and radioed a warning to the Canadians below, giving them a split second to veer away as the bomber blew himself up. The explosion killed the bomber and wounded three Afghan civilians. No Canadians were hurt.
Black, based in Wainwright, Alta., thanked the Americans, who accepted the Canadian gesture -- along with a plateful of pancakes drenched in maple syrup.
"They saved our lives," said Black. "Seeing how it was my first time, I wasn't sure what to expect, but from now on that's all I'm going to be watching for."
