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Canadians to fly Chinooks in Afghanistan
100 pilots and flight engineers being trained in Alabama, U.S.
Matthew Fisher
Canwest News Service
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
CREDIT: Matthew Fisher
The first Canadian helicopter crews ever slated to fly in combat have secretly been training for Afghan duty at this US army base in the Deep South since March. Standing before a US Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter identical to the ones they will soon be flying in Afghanistan are, left to right, Warrant Officer Jake Boucher of Quebec City, Lt.-Col. Roger Gagnon of Hawkesbury, Ontario and Captain Fred Guenette of Buckingham, Quebec.
FORT RUCKER, Ala. - The first Canadians slated to fly helicopter combat missions in Afghanistan have been secretly training for duty since last March at a U.S. army base in Alabama.
"We are going to save a lot of lives and directly affect combat operations," said Lt.-Col. Roger Gagnon of Hawkesbury, Ont., who leads a group of pilots and flight engineers training here who spoke for the first time this week about their pending deployment to Kandahar where they are to fly six CH-47D Chinooks leased from the U.S. military.
Sending Chinooks to Afghanistan meets one of the major demands made by the John Manley advisory panel on the mission and subsequently approved by Parliament. An official announcement on the Chinook deployment, which is to cost $375 million, and of the dispatch of new unmanned reconnaissance drones to Afghanistan which was also demanded by the panel, is to be made at CFB St. Hubert near Montreal Thursday by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
The Chinooks and the drones are part of a dramatic buildup that will at least double Canada's current combat capability in Kandahar by next spring. Other elements to meet growing threats in Afghanistan's hotly contested southeastern province are expected to include armed Canadian Griffon escort helicopters, which according to sources in Ottawa could be flying in Afghanistan as soon as this fall, and a U.S. infantry battalion, which is expected to be placed under Canadian command there by next spring at the latest.
These forces are to be led by Edmonton-based Brig-Gen. Jon Vance. He is to take command next March of Canada's joint task force in Kandahar as it suddenly grows to about 4,000 troops from about 2,500 and increases the ground fighting element to 2,000 troops from 1,000.
But it is the arrival of the Chinooks that has been most eagerly anticipated by Canadian troops. They have long complained about the perils facing almost daily road convoys led by light armoured vehicles (LAVs) which are favourite targets of improvised explosive devices planted by Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.
"We don't need to tell the ground troops much. They know 45 minutes in a helicopter beats one and a half days in a LAV," said Captain Ted Gow of Calgary, who has finished his basic Chinook course and is now studying to become an instructor on the aircraft.
"It is terrible when a guy going home on R & R gets blown up in a convoy. We will fly him over that and help take an enormous part of the burden off. A couple of helicopters flying what the convoys carry, especially at night, can greatly lower the risks."
Gow, who was flying Griffons before coming to Alabama, said having Chinooks gives Canada's military helicopter community a chance to "finally get off the bench."
Nearly 100 Canadian pilots and flight engineers drawn from bases in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta are to be trained by early next year at the U.S. army's main helicopter training facility at Fort Rucker, which is in southern Alabama near the Florida Panhandle.
The initial cadre of pilots and flight engineers, who also spent five weeks studying in Pennsylvania, have already finished or are close to finishing their Chinook training. After that many of the pilots will do specialized, high-altitude training in Colorado.
"We don't have firm dates yet but the projected time frame is to begin bringing crews over by the end of the year for in-theatre seasoning and to become operational early in the new year," said Gagnon, who is to command the first Canadian Chinook detachment in Kandahar.
"The plan is for us to be there for six months at a time and to marry our rotations with our army rotations."
The helicopters that Canada is to fly in Afghanistan are already there and are currently being flown by U.S. forces from a base near Kabul. They will receive Canadian markings sometime early in the New Year.
"Since we have no Chinook capability at home and all the Chinooks will be in Afghanistan, everybody being trained is going to end up over there," said Capt. Fred Guenette of Buckingham, Que. "What we're getting here is exactly what the U.S. army pilots get."
One of the greatest benefits of training at Fort Rucker has been that all of |
