Despite being such a different environment, life for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan did have a few of the characteristics of home.One of them was the ritual of the Bar-B-Q.Bar-B-Qs remained popular even though there was always a reasonable chance that your Bar-B-Q would be interrupted by one of the frequent rocket attacks by the insurgents that always seemed to occur during the evening. Canadian Bar-B-Qs, held once a month, were always looked forward to as this was when we got a chance to welcome newcomers and say good-bye to those finishing their tours and returning to Canada. It didn't hurt that this was also when Canadian soldiers received their monthly ration of two beers. While these Bar-B-Qs were Canadian in nature there was nothing stopping one of the multi-national organizations, such as I was a member of, from holding their own Bar-B-Q, minus the two beers of course.And at the end of May we received a new boss who decided that our section would do just that, have our own Bar-B-Q. We actually had never had one for our section before so this was something new.There would be no Canadian beer ration, but we would have Australians, Americans, Dutch, British and of course Canadian in attendance.
Now like any Bar-B-Q someone has to organize it and the task fell to our Office Manager, a Sergeant and myself. Now I had been in Kandahar Airfield, simply known as KAF, for over five months before I got a chance to organize a Bar-B-Q. Up until then I had only attended the monthly Canadian Bar-B-Q. It was while organizing our own section Bar-B-Q that I discovered how such an institution could be so familiar and different at the same time. The first thing that I discovered was that our Headquarters had a Bar-B-Q area, something that I had never run across in the previous five months. That's how big our Headquarters was. And while I may not have known of its existence it seemed that every other section did know about it as when I went to book it just about every available time slot was already taken up. Nevertheless after some successful horse trading we secured the 1630 hrs time slot on Sunday. While earlier than we would have liked it did have two advantages. It was right after an important working group that many of our invited guests were at and therefore likely to be available to attend and it was early enough to avoid the evening ritual of the rocket attack, which normally didn't occur until 1900 hrs or later. This was no imaginary consideration as fully one third of the Bar-B-Qs I attended while in KAF were interrupted by them. Now before anyone thinks that we were dodging the rockets themselves I should explain that most rockets fell wide of their mark, but nevertheless when we heard the rocket attack alarm we were required to retire to the nearest bunker or hardened building until the all-clear was sounded, which would effectively end the Bar-B-Q.
As there are no grocery stores in KAF, all our food had to be requisitioned from the Dining Facilities or DFacs as they were known. This involved the usual paperwork and of course pick-up on the day of the Bar-B-Q. I might also add the usual bureaucracy as not all our food items could be picked up at the same DFac. Different food items had to be picked up from different DFacs located in different parts of KAF. Nothing it seemed was easy or straight forward here. As we went about the process of gathering up our food items at each DFac I asked about ice. In the 40 degree heat we needed it for the cans of pop. We had even had the foresight to bring big plastic containers with us for that very purpose. However at every DFac we went to we were told that while they all had walk-in fridges they didn't have any ice, nor did they know of where you could get any. Yet I knew there was a source as every Canadian Bar-B-Q I had attended had lots of ice. I decided to go back to our Headquarters and ask the Sergeant-Major who had organized all the previous Canadian Bar-B-Qs where they got the ice from. When I walked into his office I instead ran into one the Canadian pilots I knew who was using the Sergeant-Major's office to write up some reports. "Jody", I asked, "where do you get ice for the Bar-B-Qs?", thinking that he might know. He looked at me and whispered in an almost inaudible voice, "The morgue." "Did you just say the morgue?" I asked thinking that I had misheard or that he was even joking. When he slowly nodded, I knew that one of KAF's secrets had just been revealed to me.
I didn't even know where Mortuary Affairs, as it is officially called, was located let alone that it was the sole source of ice on an airfield that housed close to 28,000 troops. After being given directions to an out-of-sight location just behind the hospital we entered into a large utilitarian building that was mercifully not being used at the moment and were ushered to the corner where an ordinary ice machine stood. Although we were there to gather ice I was mindful of the fact that I was standing in the place where every fallen Canadian soldier passed though. It was for me the most somber moment in my six month tour. Little had I known when I agreed to help out that I would be gathering ice from the same machine that supplied ice for the caskets being shipped home. It wasn't just the rocket attacks that made our Bar-B-Qs different.
Nevertheless this and other Bar-B-Qs provided much needed relief from the strain of living in KAF not to mention working the endless 14 hour + days. For an hour or two we could forget about where we were and enjoy a steak with potato salad and stuffed peppers, all washed down with a pop or even a "near" beer in the company of those who we had become so close to in the past months.
Exactly two weeks later I was treated to the best Fathers' Day ever. My son had been in theatre since mid-April, but because I was in KAF and he was outside it I had not yet seen him. However like all Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan you have to pass through KAF when you go on leave to receive your briefing and then catch your flight the next day to Camp Mirage. I had known the date he was to fly out of KAF and it wasn't for another few days. Still I decided to check my e-mail on the way to supper to see if he had any more details about when he was arriving in KAF. After I had checked my inbox another message came in. This one from my son, saying he had just arrived and was staying in building 27. I knew this building and it was literally 30 meters from where I was! I quickly logged off and walked briskly across the alley way and in a few minutes located him. He was a bit thinner than the last time I saw him. Some of his soldiers that I ran into before I met my son confessed later that they thought they should know me for some reason, but couldn't understand why. Now it became obvious to them as to most people I just look like an older version of my son. He explained that he had arrived early with some of his soldiers also going on leave as that was the only helicopter flight to KAF that was available.
Geoff and I had lots of news to catch up on. Like me he has had an interesting tour so far. Where he lives though is far more austere than what we experience in KAF. The buildings in KAF including the quarters where he was staying are all air conditioned. Not being used to it he told me the next morning that he nearly froze. His tales of life "outside the wire" were much more dramatic than mine of life in KAF. I found it interesting that he had a much more detailed knowledge of common everyday events in Afghanistan as the result of his firsthand experience while I had a much broader and comprehensive view of what was going on as a result of working in the Headquarters. That night we went to T.G.I.Friday's, a restaurant on the boardwalk. It may have been Fathers' Day, but somehow I got stuck with the bill. Some things never change! Geoff also found eating in a restaurant in KAF bordering on the surreal. It wasn't the fact that this was the first restaurant meal that he had eaten in two months, rather it was the same reaction that I first had of being in a place that appeared normal in every respect, except that all the costumers, whether they were in uniform or not, were heavily armed. We were able to get together a couple of times before he left and I even got to wish him bon voyage as he left to go on leave. As I write this he is now in Greece enjoying his leave with his girlfriend. At least the hot Greek summer weather won't bother him. He just has to stay away from that air conditioning!
The next Bar-B-Q as well as the next family reunion that I attend will be in Canada as I my tour has almost ended and soon I will be home. I know I will enjoy them as well, but they will never be quite like the ones I experienced in Afghanistan.
