Afghanistan 2009

Back from the war zone

'We had a couple of incidents and times when our truck almost got blown up'

Posted By COREY LAROCQUE REVIEW STAFF WRITER
Posted 3 hours ago

With his army kit sitting in the doorway of his Willmott Street home, Cpl. Justin Hamlyn was already talking about a second tour of duty in Afghanistan. He had set his camouflage backpack, olive-green duffel bag and travel trunk at the base of the stairs, just inside the front door.

"I wouldn't mind doing another one, but I probably wouldn't go again until it stabilizes a bit more," Hamlyn said Wednesday, about a half-hour after returning to Niagara Falls.

The 21-year-old Niagara Falls soldier was reunited with his family that afternoon, a few days after leaving Afghanistan. A piece of white Bristol board with a handwritten "welcome home" message and a yellow "support our troops" ribbon hung from the porch of their two-storey brick home.

He talked with pride about the satisfaction of having gone.

"You can't experience being a true Canadian until you've served Canada," he said.

Hamlyn is a member of the Lincoln and Welland regiment, Niagara's militia regiment. He started work as a reservist in 2006, as part of a co-op class while he was a Westlane secondary school student.

Unlike regular forces personnel who are assigned overseas rotations as part of their full-time job, members of Canada's reserve regiments are part-time soldiers who volunteer for these assignments. Hamlyn had to apply for a tour in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, he was physically far from Afghanistan, but he wasn't long removed from the danger he encountered in the eight-month mission.

"We had a couple incidents and times when our truck almost got blown up," Hamlyn said.

His mother, Debra Ferrone, and stepfather Pio Ferrone were hearing the details of the close calls for the first time, as Hamlyn described them to The Niagara Falls Review. Pio whispered, "this is surreal" as he listened to accounts of incidents that had been downplayed in the weekly phone calls home.

Hamlyn was stationed at Camp Nathan Smith, the Canadian base in Kandahar City, one of the country's largest cities.

He served in the escort team for the commanding officer of the camp.

"I was part of niner tack. It was the CO's escort. Wherever the colonel went, I was his close protection," Hamlyn explained.

One of the closest of the close calls happened in early April, near the end of his tour when five suicide bombers destroyed the provincial council building in Kandahar, killing 13 people.

"We were supposed to be there," Hamlyn said, adding the blast from a car bomb would have certainly killed anyone near the gates of the building - the spot where he would have been stationed. The meeting the Canadians were supposed to attend had been called off hours before.

There were nights when Debra woke up in the middle of the night, worried about her son, and considered those interruptions a cue.

"I just felt like I had to pray for him," she said.

Debra works at Zehrs and Winners in Niagara Falls. Her coworkers were constantly asking about her son, keeping him in their thoughts.

The framed baby pictures of Hamlyn she brought out for his going-away party last August were still sitting in the front window pane.

Hamlyn's family said they got a lot of support from the "prayer warriors," members of their church, the Joy of Life church in St. Catharines, who prayed for his safe return.

"It's great to hear the stories of the close calls now," said Pio.

Hamlyn's assignment meant a lot of driving around because his colonel had business off the base.

"When we drove around, I was the gunner for the vehicle. We drove around everywhere," he said.

For Canadian troops, driving has been by far the biggest threat. The vast majority of the 118 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan have died because their vehicles hit roadside bombs placed by Taliban fighters.

Hamlyn spent a lot of time on the road. In his nearly eight months in Afghanistan, he drove 250 patrols, sometimes as many as four a day.

Whenever Hamlyn and the soldiers he worked with had a close call, they would try to laugh it off, a coping mechanism to deal with the stressful situations.

"It's relieving to still be around and stuff. You would laugh at it when it happens. You just talk about what could happen and everything," Hamlyn said.

His colonel, whom he wouldn't identify for security reasons, regularly had meetings with Afghan officials, or would visit troops at forward operating bases or meet with Canadian government officials from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Canada's role in Afghanistan has shifted away from combat, toward reconstruction -helping Afghan people rebuild roads, schools and hospitals in a country ravaged by war for decades.

The Canadian reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is taking hold, Hamlyn said.

"During our rotation, a lot happened to make it a better place."

Hamlyn was in Afghanistan when Warrant Officer Dennis Brown, a member of the Lincoln and Welland regiment, was killed in March. The 38-year-old St. Catharines soldier was also the victim of a roadside bomb.

"It was pretty hard," said Hamlyn. They weren't working directly together, but they were on the same base.

"I worked with him overseas and he was in my unit. It was pretty upsetting, but we had a good memorial for him."

He attended Brown's ramp ceremony -the military parade in which the coffins of fallen soldiers are loaded onto a military plane for the return flight to Canada.

Two dozen of the 118 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan died since last August when Hamlyn went over. The most recent casualty was Maj. Michelle Mendes, an intelligence officer whose death Thursday was not combat-reated.

Hamlyn attended some of the ramp ceremonies.

"It's quite nice to see because of all the people who turn out. It's more honouring them. It's showing so much respect."

Hamlyn said he didn't know Cpl. Tyler Crooks, originally from Port Colborne who was a regular forces member of the Royal Canadian Regiment, Niagara's other casualty in 2009.

Now that he's home, he has about a month and a half leave time from his duties with the Lincoln and Welland regiment. Hamlyn talked about going back to school in the fall, possibly with the goal of becoming a police officer. He's also considering joining the air force.

Whatever path unfolds, he said he knows now he wants a career "doing stuff for the country, making it a better place and making other places better."

His family is throwing a welcome home party today, exactly eight months after he left. Hamlyn's mother said friends and family are welcome to stop by between noon and 9 p. m.