I left Afghanistan on March 24, or something like that, in 2009. We flew, briefly, through a staging base in the Middle East and turned in our guns, our ammunition, and all the fighting kit that we had. A bunch of our stuff went into boxes to get shipped home. They put us on a military airbus and we flew to Cyprus, where the Canadian Forces had contracted a hotel.
In that hotel we had the day we got there, three full days, and then the day we left. The first full day was a full day of mandatory briefings on various mental health and readaptation things. The second day was a half day of that and then a half day just to go and do your own thing. The third day was a full day of do your own thing.
Every two days a new batch would arrive—a plane full of soldiers—and a new batch would leave, which turned this thing into pure anarchy. Well, it wasn't quite that bad. A bunch of soldiers who have not been able to cut loose for six or eight or nine months made it a running, constantly refreshed party. It was good times. The training was not the worst, but I don't know if the timing was great.
I'm a reservist, so when I got home I was met at the airport by a couple of people from my unit and my parents, and then after that it was about how quickly I could find several friends and get out and party with them.
There was sporadic follow-up, mostly of a medical nature, and a token meeting with a social worker. With them, if you go in and just give them the right answers, they tick their boxes, and you go off and you don't have to worry about them again. Many members just did not disclose things, and in many cases issues had not emerged at that point either. We know that the mean incidence of mental health disorders can often be as long as five years after a trauma. My longest follow-up was, I believe, six months post-tour, so perhaps there's a vulnerability there.
It really felt as if they were ticking boxes just to say that they got this done. I'm not questioning the intent of those who put this in place, but I am questioning the effectiveness of the process and the lack of longer-term follow-up a few years down the road. I felt very few of the vets in crisis are still in that immediate post-deployment phase.