Lt Nuttall left a legacy of photos and thoughts on is Blog site.This is part what he wrote last entry. Please go to:http://www.nuttman.info/ to read his thoughts of the mission and perhaps understand a wee bit more of what our troops face daily.
Update from Afghanistan 4
December 1st, 2009 Posted in Military, Personal/Website | No Comments
(Ive put some more pictures up on flickr!)
Hi all!
In order to be as open as I can im now going to post these updates on my website, although I am going to have to be a bit less specific, but i promise it wont take away from the story. As well Im posting some new pictures with this update so it should be a good one!
The last I left you was saying I was moving to a new house with no internet. Well many things have changed, yet many things stay the same. The new place was working out excellently for us, and a platoon of ANA (afghan national army) which we started to work with very closely. We spent many long days fixing and improving our compound, as well as the typical patroling around our AO. The situation around this new home was much more tense and fragile than our last, the last time the locals saw any uniformed troops was some americans who ran through the place guns blazing. As such they were quite wary, and so were we because of the high amount of insurgent presence we were expecting. Either way though during all of the days weve spent there nothing kinetic (aka fighting) has gone on, and that is relatively typical of the situation here. On one side the people are frightened, impoverished, and seek nothing but safety and prosperity for their families. On the other side is a very small subset of a combination of extreme Salafist muslims (aka seeking to impose an extremist version of islam on the entire world), anti-western mercenaries, and misguided brainwashed (generally) youths that utilize cowardice hit-and-run and ied tactics in order to sway the civilain population of afghanistan and north america to pull their troops out. Then there is us in the middle, an array of nations trying to combine our traditionally conventional forces and conduct combined operations with the young but capable ANA (and young but immature Afghan National Police, ANP), in a barren country with many more needs than just militaristic. Complicated, yes, confusing, only a bit, frustrating, unfortunatly too much.
But back to my situation, I spent my first bit of time there talking a lot to the locals together with the ANA. One of our biggest force multipliers is the combined arms team weve got working together, the CIMIC people (aka reconstruction and projects), PSYOPS (aka local messaging), engineers, armoured people, and the afghan government (ANA and ANP). Together we can really do some good, when the people are on board. Sometimes the people arent as what was happening with me, either their frightened or dont realize what we can do and it takes time to convince them through actions that we are there to stay and not gone with the next change in winds. So as I was beginning to make some heady with the locals and get more information/weapon and ied caches and such, the platoon recieved another surprise. We had to move another time!
Now usually moving around is no big deal, but it definetly throws a wrench into the plans (plus weve got to fit in our foosball table!). Either way we found ourselves moving not too far down the road, which works out well as the new place is close to the village were trying to improve and is more comfortable. I tried to include as many pictures of the place were in now, most of the troops live in the mud hut, while the hq staff is outside in the tent. The mud hut themselves are only a bit dusty (and mouse infested), but are really warm at night and cooler during the day (perfect for afghanistan weather). Plus were slowly building up some other nice morale boosting amenities, warm water for showers, a dvd player, a gym with actual weights (instead of sandbags), and of course weve got the foosball table and dart board plus many board games. The longer we stay here the better it gets.
The other big event that happened was Eid. Its the muslim version of christmas, all of the locals will go home with their families and cook big meals. I had the lucky chance to be at 2 different Eid dinner celebrations with the ANA, where we butchered some local goat and sheep, boiled it in a curry like water, and had it with the best tasting basil ive had, of course lots of rice, and huge pomogranetes for desert. Wow it was so delicious, and so much food we all were stuffed! (Though i missed out on the heart and liver soup, and brain pate. Apperently it was delicious, i wanted to try). After the first Eid meal there was a big dance party, the ANA put on a very scratchy speaker with the usual shrieky arab music. That is when the night started getting a bit gay, you could see that some of the ANA probably joined for the booty, luckily i had to run to attend to the radio. On the second Eid dinner afterwards we sat around and talked for almost 2 hours, it actually was fun sharing stories and jokes.
Typical Canadians the platoon adopted a dog; GoGun
Gogun out on patrol. She is an awesome patrol dog, everytime we grab our weapons, she jumps up to follow, never makes a sound on patrol and comes everywhere day and night. Most of the people don't treat their pets very good here though, so we have to yell at the kids when they start throwing rocks at her.
Me, stopping for a quick break in the shade on patrol. (Our bomb dog in the background)
Not to Forget some time to relax a wee bit:
Foosball! We've been hauling this table around with us the entire time, great for international relations!
My signaller surrounded by kids as we talk to some locals. The always ask for pencils and pens (aka kalam!), though we when we start giving them out, they maul us.
So sadly as the death of another Soldier of Canada is, his parents must be awfully proud of this young man. A member of the 1st bn PPCLI. Thankyou for your ultimate sacrifice Lt Nuttall. We will remember you always.
One memory from an Island comrade:
Capt. J.P. Wright of Charlottetown, right, seen with his mother, Maggie Lillo, was good friends with Lt. Andrew Nuttall, the latest Canadian Forces soldier killed during the mission in Afghanistan. (CBC)
An Island soldier said goodbye to a close friend Thursday in Afghanistan, serving as a flag bearer at the ramp ceremony of slain army Lt. Andrew Richard Nuttall.
Capt. J.P. Wright of Charlottetown was good friends with Nuttall, the latest Canadian Forces soldier killed during the mission in Afghanistan.
I knew Andrew very well and I can tell you he was honestly one of the finest men I have ever known. I'm not just saying that because he was killed, Wright wrote in an email to his mother Maggie Lillo.
He honestly was a great guy. Always a smile and a laugh for everyone.
Farewell young soldier your duty done Rest in Peace.
Please show support for our troops in any way you can.
Nil Sine Labore
Robby
