Troops raise Ortona Toast for first time since 1942
Canadians in Afghanistan celebrate their regiment while honouring their brothers lost in battle, CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD reports
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
From Friday's Globe and Mail
HOWZ-E-MADAD, AFGHANISTAN — With the sun rising rosy on the shortest day of the year, the soldiers of The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group raised their glasses yesterday in their unit's official "Ortona Toast."
It was a rare quiet and proud moment in a four-month-long campaign in southern Afghanistan that has seen 19 Canadian soldiers killed and more than 100 injured, some grievously, in a succession of battles as hard, if not as bloody, as the one in 1942, in Ortona, Italy, that gave the drink its name.
The concoction -- composed of equal parts dark rum, warm water and brown sugar -- is supposed to be served in white china cups, just as it was to the officers who drank it on the RCR's birthday that long-ago day during the Second World War.
The unit quartermaster even managed to secure a handful of the appropriate white cups -- and get them pushed forward for the officers and senior non-commissioned officers to the middle of the Arghandab River valley, where the soldiers are stationed for a few days now. The ranks drank theirs from plastic coffee cups.
"I can't tell you how proud and excited and honoured I am to be with you," Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Omer Lavoie told hundreds of soldiers gathered around their Light Armoured Vehicles.
Lt.-Col. Lavoie said the peaceful "soft knock" kickoff to the NATO Operation Baaz Tsuka envisioned by multinational commander Dutch Major-General Ton van Loon has gone "flawlessly," and reminded the soldiers that their months of hard fighting in the Panjwai valley, where vineyards and mud compounds dominate the landscape, were not so different from the environment their predecessors faced in Italy 64 years before.
"It's safe to say that this group of soldiers is history-making," Lt.-Col. Lavoie said, "the first to celebrate the Ortona Toast in the field, conducting combat operations" since 1942.
Colonel John Vance, commander of the First Canadian Brigade, made the official toast, saying, "Friends, in honour of all present and all those who have passed, and 123 years of service to country, charge your glasses." The RCR's motto is the simple Latin Pro patria, meaning "For country."
Afterward, as soldiers stood talking quietly, a few smoking cigars, Col. Vance reflected on the nature of the losses the unit has suffered here.
Canada's is a small army, he said, and after 25 years in, as he and Lt.-Col. Lavoie have had, you know everyone, and subordinates are more like brothers in a tightly knit family. "It makes the losses that much more difficult," Col. Vance said, his eyes glistening, "but serving with them is a very comforting thing."
Joining in the toast was the RCR's new Regimental Sergeant-Major, Chief Warrant Officer Mark Miller, who flew into Kandahar on Monday and was on the ground, at Lt.-Col. Lavoie's side, two days later.
CWO Miller replaces RSM Robert (Bobby) Girouard, who with Corporal Albert (Stormy) Storm was killed in action last month when their Bison armoured personnel carrier was hit by a suicide bomber just outside Kandahar.
For the 46-year-old from Minto, N.B., the appointment -- RSM is a title, not a rank -- was particularly poignant, as he and RSM Girouard were great friends, and he knows the Girouard family. Two Girouard sons are in the military -- Michael is an officer cadet at the Royal Canadian Military College, while Robert is a private with the regiment.
"It's an honour to be here as this organization's RSM," he said. The 1st Battalion RCR is his home unit, where he first served after finishing basic training, and, he said, "I know them well."
Given the close relationship that is common between a CO and his RSM, with the officer relying on the RSM to care for the troops and also provide him a sympathetic ear, CWO Miller's arrival here was particular good news for Lt.-Col. Lavoie, who has been working alone since CWO Girouard was killed.
For soldiers who have been involved in hard combat so frequently, the current assignment, to make secure Howz-e-Madad while other soldiers engage in relationship building and the delivery of aid, comes as a reprieve.
Yesterday, the battle group handed over a brand-new vehicle checkpoint to the Afghan National Police at Howz-e-Madad. Constructed overnight by engineers from the British 28th Engineer Regiment, the checkpoint now allows the ANP to actually divert suspicious cars or trucks to a secure area for a search. It was welcomed by ANP District Police Chief Aka Abullamrasol, who immediately asked for another such checkpoint at Zhari, a few kilometres away.
The checkpoint should make the village safer and villagers less vulnerable to the intimidation tactics of the Taliban, Charles Company Commanding Officer Major Matthew Sprague said yesterday, but the real question is whether the ANP, a force rife with corruption, will use it and use it properly.
"At least we can say we tried," Major Sprague said with a shrug. Interpreters had already told him that the reason the police like the checkpoint is that it will make it easier for them to extort bribes from passing motorists.
Thus far in Operation Baaz Tsuka (Falcon's Summit), North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops have encountered little resistance from the Taliban, who are rumoured to have made a strategic retreat to a village about four kilometres south, where, unconfirmed reports say, fighters have been told to "get ready to die."
cblatchford@globeandmail.com
To both these proud Regiments.
