Documentary filmmaker rides in ill-fated Canadian army convoy

Canadian Press via Sun Media ^ | 2006-04-23 | Murray Brewster

[Clive]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Documentary filmmaker Rich Fitoussi never liked getting into the Canadian army's much-heralded, much-loved light armoured vehicle - LAV III - or its cousin the Bison armoured car.

Even though the largely windowless metal cocoon is meant to keep him and hundreds of dust-covered soldiers whose lives he chronicled safe, it was always a nerve-wracking, uncomfortable experience.

Never more so than Saturday, as the well-travelled Toronto-native found himself hunkered down inside a Bison when suspected Taliban militants unleashed their deadly fury on a Canadian convoy, killing four soldiers.

"I feel a little bit guilty," said Fitoussi, 32, in an interview Sunday, "because why them and not me? I'm told it's a natural reaction."

"I feel a great deal of dread for the families back home."

Fitoussi's lumbering, heavily-shielded vehicle was directly behind the lighter-weight G-Wagon, which struck an improvised explosive device on a remote, rock-strewn wadi, or dry river bed, just outside of Gumbad. His life was probably saved because he was in a Bison - a fact not lost on him.

"It's early in the morning, you know, everyone's half awake when there was this huge explosion that seemed to suck all of the air of the LAV," Fitoussi said.

"It was hard to breathe with the pressure against my chest."

Exposed in the rear hatches of the vehicle to provide covering fire, two heavily armed air sentries "started freaking out and yelling," said Fitoussi, 32.

"The LAV stopped. They dropped the ramp. I kept asking, 'Is it bad?', 'Is it bad?'. They wouldn't answer me."

For the next 20 breathless minutes, no one did answer Fitoussi. For his own safety, he was confined to the chalky, diesel-smelling, semi-darkness as the sickening aftermath of the improvised explosive attack swirled around him.

Troops scrambled to recover the dead, render first aid to the injured and secure the area.

"At first I was freaked out," Fitoussi said, recalling how he passed the troops extra first aid kits and ammunition.

"But then I calmed down and there was this sense of serenity. It was really strange."

As soldiers take comfort in the regime of their training, the filmmaker grabbed his camera and began recording.

"My immediate reaction was to hide behind my camera and get to work, start shooting, get to work and hide behind the 'do your job,"' said Fitoussi, who most recently shot a documentary in Cambodia.

All the while, he wondered about the fate of the four men in the G-Wagon, with whom he'd spent the better part of the last two weeks. These are men with whom he had shared meals, swapped stories and eventually profiled at the platoon house in Gumbad - known locally as the Red Devil Inn after the nickname of its occupants, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

When the news did come, it was in hushed tones from one of the soldiers guarding him and the attack site.

"One guy just whispered in my ear that three guys were dead and one is in bad shape," he recounted quietly and with a faraway expression.

"I started to cry because some of these guys had kids. I don't."

Cpl. Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell, Lieut. William Turner were the three men who lost their lives in the vehicle just 15 metres ahead of him.

Cpl. Randy Payne, whom Fitoussi was told by other soldiers fought valiantly to survive, died after being air evacuated to the coalition hospital at Kandahar airfield.

It was the worst one-day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War more than half a century earlier.

"When I got out of the vehicle, that's when I saw what happened and that's when I got the kick in the gut feeling and I got sick," he said.

As the tattooed filmmaker stood on that lonely stretch of desert trail, 75 kilometres away at Kandahar airfield the commander of the multi-national brigade, Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser received the news that two of his own personal protection soldiers had been killed.

"I never like watching people come through the door in my office because I can tell by the looks on their faces that the news isn't going to be good," said Fraser, who often referred to his guards as his posse.

"It's the same look everyone has. You just get that knot in your stomach and you hope everyone is OK. But I knew by the look that it wasn't very good."

Much of what Fitoussi saw on that remote stretch of road is the subject of a military investigation, with details of the damage to the vehicle and the size of the crater considered operational security matters. Coalition commanders are concerned that description of the scene could help Taliban bomb makers with their next deadly project.

While some of his footage will make it into television news reports, military analysts are uncomfortable with it being shown in its entirety. How much of it will make it into the final cut of his documentary is yet to be determined.

[Clive]

-

[fanfan]

[Red6]

Here's a bit of Trivia:

There is a lot of sharing of information between enemy TTPs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why? Whatever happens in one tends to spill over to the other.

But the French Germans and a few others will continue to deny any connections and that this is all just part of a much much larger GWOT.

[68skylark]

I think a lot of people (including me) had the impression that Afghanistan duty is safer than going to Iraq. The news media reinforces this view.

But in fact, I think I read recently that the number of casualties per soldier is about the same both places. Those who serve in Afghanistan know this.

[Don W]

These brave young men deserve better.

To have their sacrifice belittled by the press, and used by the LiEberals as a lever against all that stands between us and those who wish us DEAD is a travesty.

Poorly stated, but I think you get the gist.