Canuck helicopter a vital eye in the sky

Two American Chinook helicopters approach a marked landing zone west of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Armed Canadian Griffon helicopters can protect Chinooks like these from attack and watch over ground convoys. "I'd rather not talk about it," the 33-year-old Edmontonian replies when asked about his relative, who is among the 108 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
"It's personal and kinda tough."
He refuses to say any more, declining to name the soldier or talk about the circumstances of his death. But it's clear that the loss of a relative is a major reason why he takes his job so seriously.Lucas, a 12-year veteran of the Canadian military, is a mechanic with the 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. It's his job to keep the eight CH-146 Griffons ready to fly on a moment's notice.Speaking from the Canadian base at the Kandahar airfield yesterday, Lucas says the choppers, which have only been in Afghanistan since mid-December, are preventing more Canadian casualties on a daily basis."It certainly makes me want to stay focused," he said."When you're here, you realize how important the job really is."By far, the deadliest place for Canadian soldiers to be is in a vehicle on the treacherous roads in the dusty countryside of Kandahar province.Taliban insurgents target military vehicles with bombs planted along the roadside - or strapped to suicide bombers who then approach checkpoints.
HIT A BOMB
The last 11 Canadians to die in Afghanistan have been killed by roadside bombs. The latest, Sapper Sean Greenfield, 25, of the 2 Combat Engineer Regiment based in Petawawa, died Saturday when the armoured vehicle he was riding in hit a bomb in the Zhari district, 40 km west of Kandahar. In a tragic irony, Greenfield was finishing up a joint mission by Canadian, U.S. and British soldiers to find and root out the makers of the bombs.Canadian soldiers have been particularly vulnerable in convoys of trucks delivering equipment, supplies and troops to forward operating bases throughout Kandahar province.It is precisely that kind of tragedy that the helicopters are helping to avoid.The Griffons, equipped with Gatling guns, armour plating and special sensors, are escort vehicles whose primary purpose is to protect large Chinook transport helicopters, greatly reducing the number of vehicles on the roads.The Griffons can also escort ground convoys and spot roadside bombs from the air.Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie said movies like Black Hawk Down (about an ill-fated U.S. military operation in Somalia in the 1990s) can give the impression that helicopters are flying death traps, easy targets for anyone with a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher.In fact, MacKenzie said, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are not designed for airborne targets and only have a range of a hundred metres or so. Helicopters can easily fly above that.Real surface-to-air missiles are harder to come by, and so far the Taliban don't appear to have any weapons that sophisticated.
HANDS UP
MacKenzie said during one visit to Kandahar, he asked a group of about 30 infantrymen how many of them had been attacked by a so-called improvised explosive device (IED).
"Every hand went up," he said.
It's demonstrations like this that gives Lucas his sense of purpose.
"I'm really proud to be here," says Lucas."My only regret is that I miss my wife and young daughter, but I know it's important that we're here. I look at it this way: when I think about (the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York) I know I would rather take the fight to them here, rather than fight them back home in Canada."He adds: "I think we're serving a purpose and the soldiers that passed away did not die in vain."