So 20 years ago, I was walking through this same airport and I was a brand new reporter
freaked out and excited about my first big overseas assignment, Afghanistan.
David Common, CBC News, Kandahar.
And I went and met a bunch of Canadian soldiers who themselves
were deploying for the first time to a war zone in like half a century.
Well, a lot's happened to Afghanistan in the years since.
And we ask, what was it all for?
And now those soldiers are holding a reunion, 20 years after the fact.
and they've invited me to meet with them.
[Alex Watson] A lot of them I haven't seen in 20 years.
There are some very, very close bonds for sure.
[Reporter] Alex Watson was a captain in 2002.
I met him on the first of his three deployments to Afghanistan.
[Archive audio] Activity on the base in Kandahar is constant Aircraft landing,
emptying their loads of military supplies and promptly taking off.
Perimeter patrols try to keep those planes and the base safe.
But safety also means getting off the base and into the communities.
If there are people that are threatening the airfield,
they're going to be among the local population.
So we try to keep the local population on side with us.
That tour of which you just showed video.
That was the first time that I got to participate
in history as it was happening like 9-11 happened.
And then like four months later, we're there in Afghanistan
and it really mattered and people really cared.
And like I was like, well, like I'm not going to get a lot of chances
to participate in big events very often.
And a life should not be defined by big events.
A life should be defined by small moments of kindness and generosity
and participating as a citizen.
But but I knew I had a limited window to do big things.
So I dreamed big for that seven months.
But in terms of wins over the long term
I can't I, I keep my, my life small.
I don't try to answer those questions anymore.
[Reporter] Those questions are especially hard to answer
not just for Alex, but the others in his regiment.
The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
They suffered the first Canadian losses of Afghanistan.
[Archive audio] A deadly error, and four dead Canadians.
They have sacrificed their lives in the name of Canada.
Who they were, how.
It happened, and what's being done to make sure it never happens again.
In this very spot, Canadians soldiers were conducting
a live fire night training exercise.
Then an American fighter pilot, high above, apparently thought they were shooting at him
and his F-16, so he bombed them.
Four Canadian soldiers died.
Eight others were injured.
On behalf of myself and all members of the three people
I battlegroup, I would like to express our sincerest condolences
to the families and friends of our fallen comrades.
The tragic event that took the lives of Sergeant Marc Léger
Corporal Ainsworth Dyer
Private Nathan Smith and Private Richard Green
has left massive holes in our hearts and our lives.
[Reporter] Pat Stogran is retired now.
He was the lieutenant colonel in charge when those soldiers died.
From my world, from the journalism world
the actual deployments
and then friendly fire were the biggest two news events.
What was it what were the biggest parts of
that deployment for you?
Well, you know.
I'm sorry to say, that it's friendly fire.
No, no, no.
No, no.
I think I it's associated with friendly fire.
You know, the memory of Mark, and it brings tears every time I say it.
But it's it's just the way I react.
But Mark Léger, Ainsworth Dyer, Richard Green and Nathan Smith.
Friendly fire is the most demoralizing way to lose troops.
[Lorne Ford] It would have been easier to take
if we were under fire at the time with the enemy.
That was not the case.
Lorne Ford was a 33 year old sergeant
when he was injured by friendly fire.
[Reporter] You don't sound angry, though.
[Ford] There was a time I was very angry.
Like right now
I guess, I guess the anger might be gone
but the
unnecessary
results of what happened are what's hard
to deal with.
But as time goes on
you just want to remember the guys for what they were
we can't change a fucking thing, right?
It happened. It happened.
[Reporter] 158 soldiers died in Afghanistan.
Thousands more suffered physical and psychological injuries.
There were also deaths by suicide after soldiers
returned from their deployments.
[Archive report] 2008 closes out with
32 Canadian soldiers killed this year alone.
Canada's defense minister and NATO's officials warn next
year is likely to be much more violent.
[Reporter] Over the 12 years that Canada fought here
I went back seven more times.
How many deployments do you do in total?
[Mark Campbell] In my career, I did for two and Afghanistan
and second one, I was blown up.
So I spent a lot of time
outside the wire, a lot of time outside the wire.
Because I had four teams operating day in and day out
patrolling and working with the Afghan National Army.
Unfortunately, I think I just rolled the dice one too many times
and it caught up with me.
[Reporter] Major Mark Campbell nearly died in June 2008.
We were doing a village sweep operation and
the first village went fine.
We had a platoon on our right side protecting that exposed flank.
They got into a big roar and firefight, a Canadian sergeant was shot.
He was
it was assessed that he was going to die if they didn't get him out
from shock and blood loss and we were ambushed
and they hit us from three sides with, well, they blew me up and
I was blown up by an IED.
Command-detonated IED
[Reporter] Can I
can I ask you, last August
you see everything falling apart
guys hanging on to an American cargo aircraft.
[Campbell] Yeah.
- [Reporter] Trying to get the hell out. - Yeah.
Yeah, that was a nasty, nasty bit of work.
So you've got five-year-old girls
who are now 25 year old girls, partway through
a university education who are suddenly told you're not going to school anymore.
Oh, by the way, that future
you thought you were going to have based on the last 20 years of your life
yeah, that's not going to happen either.
[Reporter] So where does that leave you?
That's pretty brutal.
[Reporter] Yeah, where do you think that leaves you?
Where does that leave our country
with the investment that we made?
I think we as a country have failed on the back end
of our obligations to Afghanistan.
But we should be doing a lot more than what we did.
And we should be doing a lot more now than
what we're doing in my, my humble estimation
to get those vulnerable Afghans out of there, because the job's not finished.
And until we get them out
particularly the people we worked with directly
who put their lives on the line to assist us.
[Reporter] Think it was all worth it?
At the end of the day, I have no regrets.
I think what we did was, particularly in the beginning
was was a virtuous mission.
We went there for the right reasons to do
good works for good people.
We should never have withdrawn contact with the enemy.
We should stay there until the job was done.
[Reporter] How do you put it into
I mean, I was I was not a soldier there, but I'm a Canadian.
But I have some trouble reconciling
all of the efforts that Canada's military in Canada
put in
in blood and treasure.
But, you know
there are people who say
it wasn't worth it
or it was all for naught.
I think that some change happened.
The country has changed.
Is it all for naught?
I don't know.
You know, because we only have two sides to our heads.
So it's either all for the better or all for the worse.
No, there are some great stories coming out of it.
But I think it was
I would never butcher soldiers for the outcome that we had.