Olympics, Haiti won't affect Afghan deployment: Senior general

Corporal Jean-Sebastien Giroux, a Flight Engineer for a CH-147 Chinook helicopter, provides security from the ramp during a flight mission. The Canadian Helicopter Force from the Joint Task Force Afghanistan Air Wing includes eight CH-146 Griffons where their primary role is to escort transport helicopter.Photograph by: Master Corporal Angela Abbey, CNDKANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Although Canadian troops were "ferociously busy," the commander of the army has concluded that the current humanitarian operation in Haiti
and security demands for the upcoming Olympics will not affect scheduled deployments to Afghanistan.


"My guys have just gone through all the math (and) there is no impact on the current rotation lengths, tour gates for the deployed forces or those going into Afghanistan between now and the end of the mission," Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said in a telephone interview Friday after returning to Ottawa, following a visit with nearly 4,000 Canadian troops at Fort Irwin, Calif., who are training to deploy to Afghanistan later this year.


Leslie's comments will put to rest speculation among the nearly 3,000 Canadian soldiers now in Afghanistan and those serving elsewhere about what effect the sudden dispatch of about 1,500 Canadian troops to Haiti this month to help earthquake survivors might have on a force that is being seriously stretched by the Afghan combat mission and a massive security operation for the Vancouver Olympics that involves another 4,000 Canadian troops.


Leslie confirmed that the Quebec-based 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, most of which is now in Haiti, was needed "back in Canada by the end of March, early April, so that they can start their training because they are on deck to go to Afghanistan in December" where they are to be the core element of a team of military trainers that mentors the Afghan army in Kandahar.


"If I have to replace 3 Van Doo with other folks, the government of Canada will let me know," Leslie said, adding that until now, the Canadian Forces have not received any new direction about this from the government.


While declining to say anything about what the army might be able to do to help in Haiti beyond early April, the general said there were "contingency plans for everything."


Despite the demands on the army, Leslie said morale remained so high that when he asked soldiers training in California this week whether any of them wanted to withdraw from their upcoming Afghan tour, the answer was unanimously "no."


Similarly, within hours of the Haiti mission being announced, the general said that so many soldiers wanted to go there that the army had to turn many of them down.


The decision to leave the Afghan plans as they were came after the army staff in Ottawa studied the troop requirements for Kandahar, Haiti and the Olympics and the complex business of synchronizing different levels of training for troops from across Canada going to Afghanistan with such crucial issues as the availability of ranges, ammunition and airlift.


Before the Haiti earthquake, Leslie informed troops slated to deploy to Afghanistan that their tours, which have mostly been either six or nine months in length, would all be extended by four or five weeks.


"The intent behind those tour extensions was to marry up the last of the fighting formations so that they terminate their combat activities as directed by Parliament at the end of June (2011)," the 'three-leaf' general said. "The last group going in will provide security elements to bring everything out of where it is now and centralize it with a remit to get it out by the end of December."


The chief of the army confirmed that the drawdown of forces in 2011 is to be protected by the Alberta-based 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. This was also the first Canadian unit to deploy to Afghanistan early in 2002. The battalion will begin its fourth Afghan tour when it deploys to Kandahar early in the summer of 2011.


"The 3 PPCLI folks' job will be 99 per cent security," Leslie said, "but let's not underestimate the dangers of the security force whose remit is to go out and provide escort for the multiple hundreds of vehicles and thousands of tons of equipment that has to go back to Kandahar and be packaged to be sent home."

Source:edmontonjournal.com