{"id":15752,"date":"2016-11-10T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15752"},"modified":"2016-11-16T17:26:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T22:26:02","slug":"soldiers-find-comfort-in-a-shared-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/soldiers-find-comfort-in-a-shared-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers find comfort in a shared experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a letter nobody should have to write, let alone receive, but Lt. Col. Dave Grebstod vividly remembers setting pen to paper.
\nIt was a letter to his mother, written on the strictest instructions it was only to be opened in the event of his death.
\nHaving enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1996, the gunner was serving in Afghanistan in a support role with Princess Patricia\u2019s Canadian Light Infantry in 2002 when he learned that his company was tasked to conduct a clearance operation of a mountain range just south of Kabul.
\nAn American brigade was already operating in the area and they took several casualties, losing two Chinook helicopters and suffering the capture and execution of an American Army Ranger.
\n\u201cThe intelligence reports we received prior to the operation were disquieting to say the least,\u201d said Grebstod, the keynote speaker at the Royal Canadian Legion\u2019s annual Remembrance Dinner on Saturday night.
\nTwo companies\u2019 worth of Taliban were believed to be on the mountain and the group was told numerous casualties were to be expected during their air mobile insurgence.
\n\u201cThe battalion intelligence officer even went to so far as to predict the first helicopters would achieve surprise while the second helicopter would likely receive heavy fire once the enemy knew where the landing zone was,\u201d he said. \u201cI am sure you can imagine my concern when I learned I was to be on the second helicopter.\u201d
\nAfter a couple of days of briefings and drills at Bagram Air Force Base near Kabul, it was time to conduct the operation.
\n\u201cThe night before we left was tense, to be sure, and at the time I was single and vividly recall writing a letter to my mother to be opened in the event of my death,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get much sleep that night and when I walked onto the airfield the next morning I was moving on pure adrenaline. The scene that unfolded was surreal. The soldiers were applying a camouflage paint without being told to do so, chaplains were offering blessings and communion to anyone who desired it. I was gobsmacked by how many underwent that right, far more than I have ever seen at a church.
\n\u201cAs we started to load up the helicopters, the scene will remain forever etched in my mind: two soldiers, obviously close friends, walked up to each other, shook each other\u2019s hands, and said, \u2018I\u2019ll see you on the LZ.\u2019 (Landing Zone) The one and a half hour flight was both terminally long and surprisingly short, if you understand what I mean. As we neared the LZ and the engineer gave us the signal indicating that we were one minute from landing, I felt my heart pound through my chest. Finally, the helicopter touched down and we surged off the ramp of the chinook into fire positions just as we had practiced.
\n\u201cI searched around vainly in the swirling dust to find the targets\u2026. Only to see a curtain of sand blocking my view. A minute later, the helicopter lifted off and we were ensconced in an eerie silence. No one was shooting at us. It was just quiet.\u201d
\nIn this case, thankfully the intelligence received was wrong and just before the Canadian Forces arrived, the Taliban \u201cabsconded through the valley\u201d to nearby Pakistan, leaving only a \u201ctiny\u201d Taliban outpost which offered \u201cextremely little resistance.
\n\u201cFast forward five months or so to the officer\u2019s mess [in Manitoba] on a Friday night,\u201d said Grebstod, now Commanding Officer of the Administrative Branch of the Canadian Armed Forces out of Base Borden. \u201cAs was usually the case, many of us arrived after work to enjoy a few cold pops and some camaraderie. I don\u2019t know why, but for some reason discussion around the operation came up and when I related my story about writing the letter to my mother, for some inexplicable reason I burst into tears.
\n\u201cIn retrospect, even though there was never any direct threat to my life and safety, months of tension and worry nonetheless culminated in a very emotional outburst on the prairie in Western Manitoba.\u201d
\nBut why? Grebstod chalks it up to a \u201cfeeling safe\u201d surrounded by his \u201cbrothers and sisters in arms\u201d who have a shared experience, have sworn to do their duty for Queen and Country, and put their lives on the line to save each other.
\n \u201cWhere do you find someone who won\u2019t chuckle when you jump at loud noises and who won\u2019t judge you because the sight of a cardboard box on the 401 makes you nervous? Where do you go when you no longer have a mess? If we could turn in our fears, our regrets and our nightmares and our injuries along with our kits, I am sure we would. The truth is we can\u2019t, which is why places like the Royal Canadian Legion still have a valuable role to play in supporting our Canadian Armed Forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a letter nobody should have to write, let alone receive, but Lt. Col. Dave Grebstod vividly remembers setting pen to paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-11-10-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-464","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 20:53:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}