Kabul Military Training Centre, Kabul Province, Afghanistan – Sept. 15, 2012. Yesterday, U.S. ISAF troops were ambushed near Mizan in Zabul Province while they were responding to a call for assistance from local Afghan Uniform Police. Four were killed.

Two days ago a man in a police uniform killed two U.K. ISAF soldiers, when they went to assist someone in need of medical help. These deaths bring to 51 the number of NATO troops killed in such attacks this year. For Canadians operating inside the wire it is no longer safe to assume you are safe. The threat now is an enemy hiding in plain sight.

The sheer scale of the Afghan base makes it feel that we are outside the wire. The illusion is tough to shake on the dusty gravel road as we pass by weapons ranges and the odd abandoned Russian vehicle, rusting very slowly in the high dry Afghan air. Long ago stripped of everything useful, the vehicle wrecks date back to when the Mujahideen fought the Soviet Union to a standstill in these valleys and peaks just north of Kabul.

The Canadian soldiers I am with are all business no matter how short the excursion. They stay in regular radio contact with Blackhorse, and always have someone playing guardian angel when we are out of the vehicle. The “guardian angel” program has someone with a loaded weapon nearby, but uninvolved, when meetings between ISAF and the ANA take place.

We eventually arrived at an ANA firing range where we were hoping to find some Canucks busily assisting. The Canadians we were hoping to find mentoring, though, were nowhere to be seen. (I found out later that they had blown an axle on the gravel road and had returned to Blackhorse). The brand new ANA troops were working or registering their newly acquired weapons. Shooting at targets and seeing where the shots actually hit and then adjusting the sights to make up for deviance in any direction.

I took the opportunity to get some footage, hoping to hook up with the Canadian mentors at a later date and somehow piece the story together from there. My “angel” for this stop was Corporal Mike Talbot. But back in the turret of the Humvee (above), Sergeant Kurt Wall had the M-240 machine gun on overwatch.

In what I assume is standard firing-range procedure in an army, no ammunition was handed out until the soldiers were ready to shoot. And everyone shot until the magazine was dry. I got out the cameras and the video cameras and did what I had to do. I worked with the hair standing up on the back of my neck (The next day a further security measure was announced. No more attending ANA live fire drills for Canadian mentors).

With our failure to find any mentors at the firing range, we bounced back immediately and headed for the operational training grounds, where we hoped to find some ANA Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) working alongside their Canadian mentors.

En route we drove past another Soviet personnel carrier-turned-Afghan sculpture (above). Some wag from a previous rotation had scrawled “Tango Team Was Here – Quebec” in white spray paint on its side. “Make a right here” Lt. Alex Buck said.

We found Warrant Officer Steven Robertson (right) shouting at a group of forty ANA NCOs squatting on the ground. The NCOs are part of a training program that brings in experienced soldiers from the field and turns them into leaders. It teaches things like how to conduct yourself to maintain respect of your troops, and how to make sure the soldiers under your command are ready for battle. The kind of basic soldiers skills that the Canadian military would more or less take for granted at home.

WO Steven Robertson, the sole Canadian in the group, was busy educating them. “Respect your soldiers. You need to ensure that the soldier is first, all right? I am not here talking for the good of my health. I want you to learn this and understand it.” he shouted.

His fervour was somewhat tempered by having to stop to let the interpreter translate in a less emphatic style. He walked back and forth through the seated figures during each pause. “I saw an episode today in which a young sergeant didn’t know how to discipline his troops. It is YOUR responsibility as NCOs to make sure the proper amount of discipline is given to the troops … make sure your troops do the right thing … They will respect you.”

Part of the drill today had been clarifying proper positioning of troops to secure an area and avoid an ambush. “Soldiers were put in the wrong positions, and even when I corrected them some of the NCOs didn’t know where to put them. The NCO should look at any piece of ground and know where the best place is to put soldier, for best effect and the safety of the soldier. Today the NCOs were not being NCOs. They were basically being lazy,” he said.

He clearly had the attention of the NCOs squatting on the ground now. Even via the translator he seems to be getting his message through. Eventually though, he hands over the remonstration to an ANA sergeant, who is the actual instructor. The ANA Sergeant seems to take a page from WO Robertson’s guidance manual as he works himself up into a frenzy, over their mostly bowed heads for the next 10 minutes.

“Soldiers are soldiers, once you train them they will know their job. The problem is getting good training in a good time period. We are trying to instill as much as we possibly can. But in the end it has to be an Afghan led training team to build an Afghan Army. That is my feeling on it,” said WO Robertson. [Read more]

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