Audio duration: 3 min, 39 sec
[Captain Gérard Caron’s voice]
Captain Gérard Caron. When I deployed to Afghanistan, I deployed with the 430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. My main role was to co-pilot the CH-146 Griffon. This involved several tasks, one of the main ones being to escort the CH-147 Chinook. Our second assignement was to do a lot of reconnaissance flights to monitor roads. We also transported important people, we called them VIPs. Then we would also transport soldiers who had to get to various bases or other locations to get to. We also evacuated injured soldiers and, in some cases, unfortunately, we evacuated some of our fallen heroes.
The men in the field were on a mission. The Royal 22nd Regiment was carrying out an operation. That day, there was an incident. One of our men was killed. It was early in the morning. We had left on an escort mission. No wait, it wasn’t an escort. We were bringing equipment to another province. The Helmand province. That morning, we heard that a hero had fallen. It wasn’t our mission, so we continued. As the day went on, we wondered about it. When we returned in the evening, we were still wondering since we had been flying over that sector. We talked to the ground unit, the battalion that was there, on the ground. And we were told that there were still three men on the mountain. So, we looked at each other and said: “It’s not our mission, but we could maybe try to do something”. I was on the administrative side, so to speak. I wasn’t flying the helicopter. I was responsible for communications, that kind of thing. I contacted the troops on the ground. We were told that the men had been on the mountain since morning and that no one wanted to go in to get them. The longer we waited, the more dangerous it would be. They had gone in by helicopter and it was dangerous to go up. They’d been fighting all day.
In the end it was up to us: “OK, we’re going to try.” The fuel tank was almost empty. We had just enough fuel left to do it. We said: “We’re going to try to fly over at least once. We’ll try.” On our first pass, we went in and, the way they were set up, they were on the side of the mountain... And the men... if we’d been able to get them on board… there was no room for them to pass under the rotor... that’s how close it was to the mountainside. We told them: ”We’ll loop around; we’ll come back. Just go down right to the edge of the precipice. Wait, give us a foot. We’ll put a skid [helicopter landing gear] on it.” We came back. We repositioned ourselves. We inched forward. We put a skid on. We boarded the men and took off. We were able to get the men off the mountain that afternoon. I think it we put on a good show. That’s the mission I remember best. Getting our three men off the mountain. Afterwards, we found out that the men had no water left. They’d drunk their water and eaten their food because they wanted to have as little weight as possible when they boarded the helicopter. So they spent that entire day in the heat – 40 to 45, no, 50 degrees - with no food or water.
So, let me tell you that whenever I see those three guys again on Remembrance Day, we all hug each other. And, we go by our first names, since we really became buddies on that mission.
