Aug 3, 2006, battle of the White School

This isn’t a story about boy scouts or saints. It’s not a story about good guys and bad guys. It’s not an easy story to tell, even though the images of that battle are slashed across my memory every single day.

It is a very Canadian story. I don’t care whether you think we should have been there or not. That’s political noise that the distance of space and time makes international strategists of us all. We were there, we fought, and we didnt care about politics.

This recounting is about a fight. It was hot, dirty, terrifying, bloody, and noisy. It was so much more than that and I’m not sure I have the skills to convey it all. Over the years many of us who survived that cauldron have gathered and remembered what we experienced. Our lost brothers, our fear and what we faced in that place. As well as I have been able, I’ve spliced pieces of that day together from our communal accounts. Without doubt, imperfectly. I’m not sure any battle can be explained in any other way.

It's difficult to know where to start this, so I will begin at the end. Within the military community many know about this day. If you knew someone who was there you might know a bit more about that day. But if you, like most people know nothing of the events, the end is an important place to begin.
At the end of the battle four of our men lay dead. Sgt Vaughn ‘Iggy’ Ingram, Cpl Chris Reid, Cpl Bryce Keller and Pte Kevin Dallaire were killed. Another 16 men were either injured or wounded in the fight.

When you take into consideration the totality of our forces that day, we had been hit hard. In our immediate area 9 Platoon and Recce Platoon had initially been deployed with Col Hope. There were also Engineer assets and an Artillery spotter attached.

B-Coy was deployed not too far away and were in steady contact with the enemy during this time.
I was with 2 Platoon and we had been placed on QRF in support of the operation. During the early morning approach to the school 9pl engaged several Taliban setting up an ambush. While the LAVs were repositioning, 33 struck an IED. Almost everyone in the car was wounded, and the driver, Cpl Christopher Reid was killed.

I’d known Chris for most of my career and had become good friends with him during our time in Mortar Platoon together.
In a Battalion of extra-large personalities, Chris was well known. He had a large soft heart that he loved to hide behind a sarcastic, crazy veneer. At one point during the tour the 25mm main gun on his vehicle had a malfunction while engaging the Taliban. While it was being cleared Chris opened his drivers hatch, and with his ever-present smoke hanging from his mouth began firing his pistol towards the closest enemy.

It wasn’t long after when the Engineer LAV struck an IED on the same stretch of road leading to the school. Several more troops were wounded and needed evac. Somewhere during this timeframe, we received the Go orders back on KAF. We mounted up and began the roughly 25-minute move to the White School. We had heard some ragged details about what we were approaching. The IEDs and the losses where on everyone’s minds as we made our way to the fight.

Our platoon like most, had seen heavy fighting in the preceding weeks. Some of which had been very near the White School. Our Battle Group had roughly 2 weeks to go in this 8-month tour. We were exhausted, mentally, and physically. We had just finished a lengthy operation where we’d been in TICs almost daily. Sometimes knowing what you’re getting into is worse than not knowing. That fear that lingers on the periphery started closing in as we made our way to the school.

We arrived sometime around noon and moved to reinforce 9 platoon’s LAV gunline which was roughly 200m away from the school.

The incoming fire from the Taliban positions near the school was heavy and coming from 3 sides. Our LAVs were spread out in a shallow arc and pouring 25mm and machine gun fire into the enemy. Elements from 9pl and recce were entrenched in some of the school’s outer buildings and were being attacked viciously.

I kept my boys behind our LAV and ran over to my platoon commander, Lt Ben Richards to find out what was happening. Approaching the rear of any fight is chaos and it’s important to take a moment to get synced up before running off, adding to the chaos. The incoming fire was smacking into our LAV positions regularly, with the occasional RPG shrieking inbound at either the gunline or the men at the school.

I found Ben ( Lt ) just outside Col Hopes CP tent, hanging off the back of his vehicle. Ben said we had work to do and pulled me into the CP. There were of couple of Engineers with sweat soaked blast gear leaning on whatever they could, guzzling water. Col Hope was standing by the map and had just briefed Ben on what needed to happen.

Someone at the school had been shot and needed to be brought back to the gunline for evac. Ben went over the map quickly, asked if I understood what had to happen. I said “I’ll get the lads mounted up and move right now.”

Col Hope broke in and told me that I would not take a LAV up that road, and that several IEDs were still active. He said that I “needed to move fucking fast”
Col Hope is the best Senior Officer I’ve ever known. He’s not a large or intimidating fellow. Not overly loud or aggressive. But he is the definition of ‘command presence’. When he spoke, the largest, toughest men in any group would lean in just to make sure they could soak up what he was imparting. Calm, thoughtful and hyper intelligent. He had this way of making you want to be successful that most leaders don’t understand.

He was a natural leader in war. He didn’t need to be there, especially so close to the fight. But none of us would have expected him anywhere else. It’s how he led. When he told me to “move fucking fast” he looked as though he wanted to come and knew he couldn’t.

I said I’d handle it on foot and ran to my boys. I gathered the guys at the back of the car, told them we had to go up to the school and get one of the wounded back here for evac.

Ben Emery ( my ginger ) began stowing the folding stretcher, and everyone made sure they were sorted out fast.
Within a minute we were off and moving through the flank of the gunline towards the edge of the road that ran towards the school.

It was mostly open ground across the 200m but there was a deep wadi cutting across part of it. I wanted to get into that wadi and use it as far as I could to approach the school with some cover. It was deep and muddy at the bottom, and even hotter if that was possible.

As we approached the wadi, Sgt Cecil Paris ran up to me and asked to come along. Cecil was our acting W.O. and I was glad to have him with us. He was one of the toughest, most capable men I knew. He was also the W.O. and could do whatever he wanted.

We soon encountered several dismounts from 9pl and recce, some suffering from severe heat exhaustion. The temperature crested 60c that day and for men wearing 80lbs in kit while fighting, the heat can also kill you. Cecil immediately began working to remove those casualties back to the CCP (casualty collection point) We entered the wadi and began moving towards the school. Pretty quickly we ran into several Taliban who were also using the wadi as a means of maneuver. Tony was beside me with his C-9 machine gun and we both fired into the leading enemy from a short distance. We forced them back around the twists and turns in that part of the wadi but we were now taking heavy fire from them as well.

This wasn’t going to work, and I knew it. We would have to risk crossing the open ground towards the school. I told the boys that we would climb out of the wadi and push towards the school. About this time the RPG barrage began. A singular RPG when fired in your direction is a terrifying and fear inducing weapon. Not to mention a highly effective munition when it impacts. This barrage is estimated to have been about 60 RPGs fired in 5 minutes at both the school and our gunline.

I’d just climbed to the top edge of the wadi when Tony grabbed me and pulled me down again. The shrieks from the storm of RPGs weren’t like anything I’d experienced before. There was no way to survive being in the open. We had to get to the school and there was only one way it was going to happen, and that was with LAVs.

We moved back towards the road where 2 of 9pl’s LAVS were in firing positions closest to us. The RPGs were still hammering as was a steady amount of machine gun fire from Taliban positions. Our LAVs were being struck all along the line but continued pouring out heavy fire in return. Not far from the 9pl LAVs Lt Richards ran up to me.
He’d been watching our attempts and knew as well, that we needed LAVs to make this push.

Lt Richards had told our cars to start moving up the road and both of us ran up to the 9pl vehicles. Their crew commanders also knew what had to be done and began moving towards the school. It was a huge risk, and everyone knew it. Understood and accepted it. While the LAVs made their move we started our push across the open ground. The incoming fire was relentless and seemed to fill the air with whirring and snapping sounds depending how close it was to hitting you. It was the second longest sprint of my life.

We got to the school and could immediately see the carnage. Several of the RPGs during the barrage had struck the buildings and walls that Iggy and his men had been using for cover. Pte Eric ‘Curtis’ Qualtier, a young soldier from 9pl was pounding the Taliban with his machine gun as they tried to over run the position. Curtis was badly wounded and had tourniquets on both arms and a leg but was bleeding heavily.

He’d been unable to stand or crawl but had asked Sgt William MacDonald to drag him over behind his machine gun so he cold keep fighting.
I’m convinced to this day that Curtis’s continued fire kept them from being completely wiped out. He was never formally recognized for his selfless actions that day. He was killed in a car accident a few years ago. I remember him often, fondly, and as a brother.

Sgt Pat Tower had also arrived with more men as had MCPL Mars Janek from recce pl. Sgt Tower was dragging Iggy by his battle rattle towards our vehicles and we moved to help him. I was stunned to see Iggy like this. Stunned isn’t sufficient but heartbreak, shock and rage were all competing.

Everyone worked quickly to get the dead and injured into the LAVs. The crew commanders had placed their vehicles as a protective shield and were taking tremendous fire. Equipment was being shot off the cars and at one point an RPG screamed in and tore the ramp chains off a 9pl car.

Sgt Vaughn Ingram had taken over 9pl earlier in the day when the IED had struck his command element. When Col Hope had asked him to take the white school, Iggy moved without hesitation with his dismounts and fought the Taliban out of it. It was during this portion of the fight that the attached platoon of Afghan Police had broke and run. But Iggy and his men never wavered, they just fought forward.

When the RPG barrage began, Iggy’s position had been smothered in shrapnel. He was hit several times but kept fighting, kept encouraging his men. Almost everyone was badly wounded, and Sgt William MacDonald kept moving between them providing first aid. He saved several lives that day.

Iggy began sliding down the wall he was firing over and tried to apply a field dressing to Cpl Bryce Keller, who was already dead. Iggy said he was sorry, and that he felt like he was fading, and then he died.
I’d known Iggy for most of my career. He’s one of those guys that you could hear a mile away in the unit lines or in the field telling a story to a crowd. It was impossible not to smile anytime you were around him. He, Bryce and Kevin were dead and many more were wounded.

Over the years I’ve hoped that in some way that these men knew we were coming for them. I hope they heard us coming and didn’t feel alone. I wish with everything in me that we could’ve made it there sooner. Those men and that place are the reason I went back on the next tour.

Once the casualties were loaded and everyone else who could fit, the LAVs began their move back to the gunline. Several of the cars made sure they positioned themselves to protect the LAV whose ramp chains were shot off. The enemy fire never slackened, and the Taliban made continued attempts to take our position while we were vulnerable.

This period was complete chaos and before the LAVs had started the move back Ben ( Lt. ) told me “Hope wants us to hold the school.”
“oh fuck” was all I thought. Recently a lot has been made about soldiers and orders. Usually these posits are made by people who’ve never had to give or receive an order. Let alone be told that you are to stay and hold a few feet of hell on earth.
We weren’t told why or for how long or if and when reinforcements would arrive. None of that really mattered. We were told to hold, so that is what we must try and do.

A few posts about Indigenous Veterans over the last day have brought up a few things.

Eric Curtis Qualtier was with C-Coy 9 Pl during our 06 tour. I knew him through my boys, a few of them were close friends.

He was one of the most genuinely kind men I’d met, quick to laugh. During the Battle of the White School, Aug 3-06 we were heavily out numbered and fighting an experienced and highly motivated force.

The heat that day broke 60c. If there is a hell, it’s modelled on that place.

Curtis was up at the school buildings with a handful of men

As we approach Remembrance Day there are more frequent texts and calls with the dudes. Catching up ( and making sure we’re all still here secretly )

We remember our fallen but also the guys who impacted our lives in an immeasurable way.

Ben is one of those ( left ) Prior to the 06 tour I was ‘given’ Ben because I kept launching guys out of my section and I was supposed to do the same with him.
Some in the CoC didnt like Ben ( not cuz he’s a ginger ) that’s just how it is.

I didnt know him at all. He was 23 and stubborn. A little cocky.

Recently the common pushback when discussing peaceable solutions, is “but chuck what if Russia invaded Canada”

Yes it’s fun to pretend Red Dawn might happen and you’re going to single handedly stop some inept 3rd tier soldiers.

No. We lose fast. Horribly fast. We arent Ukraine. We dont have a massive army with previous combat experience. We dont have the kit, equipment or training cadre.
Go on CanMilTwitter and see what stands between you and Ivan.

We cant muster a proper Battle Group and if we could, where to deploy it?

I took a few days to put some thoughts in order wrt the veteran being offered suicide as a treatment.

Since this happened it’s been the inevitable, primary focus of every vet I’ve spoken to.
Rarely have I seen such rage and anger.

This will have follow-on effects. For most vets, the mere act of reaching out is a monumental moment.

Vets calibrate this potential moment based on how their friends have faired. Or other known experiences.

‘If I reach out what happens next?’
Not just vets, anyone in this situation has that same feeling.

The absolute level of belt-fed copium.

We should be studying this war in detail to be ready for the next one. Instead the West offers up this garbage from senior US Def mbrs.

‘Managed retrograde’…yesterday the UA fled several positions and a force of 600 surrendered en mass.

https://twitter.com/caitlindoornbos/status/1540319753188872192

Numerous units broke and several key points were lost.
And entire cauldron was closed and wiped out in less than 2 days. Surrendered or killed.

‘Eke out inches’…the RA now holds 20% of Ukraine. Roughly the equivalent of Britain in area.

Negotiations need to happen.

My 1st tour was Bosnia in 94. Bit of a civil war going on. Ethnic cleansing and general mayhem.
Spent most of the time patrolling villages that had been cleansed or fought over.
Here and there we’d meet survivors. People holding on.
We’d spend time talking with them,

https://twitter.com/_evelynrae/status/1450434760111636481

And a question I would always is ask is how did things get so bad so fast. Keep in mind that Bosnia had hosted the winter olympics only a few years before the war started.

All of them, from each side or faction said the same thing.
It started with language.

15 years ago today we fought the Battle of the White School.

By the end of the day 4 men had been killed and 16 wounded or injured.
I had known Chris and Vaughan for years.
I didnt know Kevin and Bryce but most of the younger guys did. Under Col Hope, 9 platoon from C-Coy had been maneuvering with Recce Platoon throughout the early morning in an area known to have a large taliban force.
Near the White School.
The LAV Chris was driving struck an IED, killing him and wounded the rest.

15 years ago today we were ambushed in Sangin.

Left- Mark, 21
Sitting- Tony, 21
The ginger touching me-Ben, 23
( I was older )

Outnumbered, over run and written off, we never lost faith in each other. We’d been in heavy fighting for some time, and the powers above thought our Platoon was do for a light day.
We were tasked with a BDA in Sangin, where Jdams had been dropped on taliban positions near the district centre.
We knew zero about this area.
And it would bite us.

Thread:
Recently some fine folks in Ottawa had a closed dedication for the Afghanistan War Memorial.
This ensured things were ‘dignified’ and had the ‘proper reverence’ as if letting the families of the fallen, veterans + the public attend would taint affairs. The public has supported Canadian soldiers and veterans in a big way, one of which is the Highway of Heroes
Dignified
Solemn
And unifying.
When you’re over there and you see how your fallen are being honoured like this, you feel it.
But the public couldnt attend.