Home from Kandahar

BY CARLA ALLEN

The Coast Guard

NovaNewsNow.com

Master Corporal Dwayne Williams says his dad made such an impression on him as a child that the memory played a big part in his joining the armed forces.

“When I was a little kid, looking at my father or anyone in uniform I had the utmost respect for them,” he said.

Williams, home from Kandahar, Afghanistan to visit his family in East Jordan, shared what it’s like serving six months in a national support unit in the war torn country.

He and his colleagues are working towards restructuring Afghanistan to be self-sufficient.

“We want to basically get them on their feet so they can have the same rights and privileges that we have here in Canada, so kids can look forward to a decent meal in the day and education and women can look forward to equal rights,” said Williams.

As a youngster, he traveled the world with his parents, Gene and Gail, and lived for six years in Germany. He joined the military in 1989 after attending trade school in Truro and studying autobody. He then worked for two years at a Chrysler dealership.

“I worked for awhile and then thought there has to be more to life than this,” he said.

After joining the Armed Forces he served in former Yugoslavia, (now Bosnia and Croatia) in 1994.

Williams, who is based out of Gagetown, New Brunswick, was deployed in early February to Kandahar and will be there until mid-August.

“It’s the fastest time away overseas I’ve ever served,” he said.

Maintaining the vehicles in the desert-like environment is a full time job. When they sustain damage from any source, whether it’s routine or from bombs he, and others like him, will be repairing them.

“The vehicles are flat out. They are giving 110 per cent,” he said.

“There’s a fine dust everywhere. It gets into everything – the vehicles, firearms, your kit, yourself. It’s very dusty, very rocky. It’s hard on everything and it’s very hot.”

Williams says he feels privileged to have been in the military for this long. He described some of his emotions after assisting with the 1998 Swiss Air crash in Peggy’s Cove.

“I felt like that was a huge honour for me to be there at that time to help bring closure for families. You felt like you were a huge part of someone else’s life,” he said.

When the conversation turns to the mounting death toll for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, he stresses the training they have received.

“We’ve been briefed so many times, we know what we’re getting into. It’s not easy but we have a job to do. The time to think about that (possible death) is when you come home and it’s all done. When things are at their worst, people are at their best. It’s what we’re trained to do.”

Williams described how in Bosnia/Croatia they had to worry about mines. In Afghanistan it’s different.

“Without saying too much, it’s people giving up their own lives to take yours. Of course you have to be trained in that and you have to recognize different things,” he said.

“A lot of our equipment is second to none. There are a lot of countries over there in this contingent. They envy a lot of things that the Americans have but I think they envy the Canadians too for our training and the equipment that we have.”

Williams couldn’t say enough about how the Canadian forces feel about the support they’ve received from the public.

“The support for us in Afghanistan from people here in Canada has been phenomenal, overwhelming. Your set to do the best job you can ever do.”

“You go over, you’ve got a job to do, you do it to the best of your ability and you come home and you’re proud of what you did.

“Every little thing you do over there means something, regardless of trade or rank,” he said.