Afghanistan: A Soldier’s Story – Your Story

A web site, www.afghanistanacanadianstory.ca , is being launched in November, 2011 to gather the stories, photographs, video clips, and even the art work, of soldiers, air men and women, sailors, and civilians, who deployed on the Canadian Afghan Mission. The objective is to publish them in a Legacy Album that will allow those who served to share their insights and reflections on that mission.

This is not a DND or a CF initiative. It is the collaborative effort of a group of serving and retired CF members who thought there ought to be a legacy album created to share with Canadians the story of the boots on the ground in the Canadian Afghanistan Mission.

A publication team has come together under respected Canadian Publisher John McQuarrie in order to see the book published by Remembrance Day 2012.

The Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) in Edmonton has agreed to establish and administer a fund to both receive donations (and provide a tax receipt) while covering project costs out of the donations.

The MFRC will redistribute the net from the book, after costs and a retention of a percentage for their own not for profit, to the Boomers Legacy Foundation, the Military Families Fund, and the Soldier On Fund. Books will retail for $50 a copy, will only be available in hard copy, and will include a DVD at the back with video submissions as well as content that exceeded the 200-page capacity of the book.

This book is not intended to glorify the mission or condemn it. It is simply intended to provide Canadians with a little insight into what each of you accomplished, in your own way, and as part of a team, to make a difference. It is intended to present the human face, the story of the boots on the ground to the Canadian public.

We currently have volunteers in Kabul, Kandahar, Kingston, Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria but it’s a big job so if you have editing skills, web design skills, or just plain want to help pass the word along, your support is welcome. The most important thing you can do, however, if you ever deployed as a part of the Afghan Mission, is to share your stories and images.  

The Afghanistan mission was very defining for Canada and for the CF. In many ways it has represented a coming of age for our military. Afghanistan – A Soldiers Story will be more than a “coffee table book” – It will be a valuable chronicling of the successes and very human stories of our soldiers, sailors, and air men and women in Afghanistan. As such it also stands as both a well deserved tribute to their efforts and an opportunity to share with the Canadian public a valuable glimpse into what the CF and its supporters have accomplished in that mission.  

Please direct questions regarding this project to project coordinator: Lt (N) Melanie Graham consult@mywrdwrx.com