Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, I would add that the role three hospital, although it's in a plywood barn, essentially, is a state-of-the-art facility. And I would add that it is in fact the organization that gives soldiers confidence to go outside and conduct combat missions. They know that if they are injured or hurt, the role three hospital will provide them with the best medical care possible.

Public Accounts committee  Not being a professional logistician....

Public Accounts committee  In theatre I was briefed daily on the status of every vehicle fleet. I made sure that the information was shipped back to Canada to my boss, General Gauthier, to ensure that he could discuss with General Benjamin on a daily basis those issues that needed attention. Because there was the dedication of troops on the ground and the close supervision of the stockpiles in theatre, we never had an operation affected by a shortage of spare parts.

Public Accounts committee  We acknowledge that the Afghan army as it stands today does not have the same mature logistics system that we have in Canada. As a result, we work closely with them through our operational mentor liaison team not only to build the capacity in their logistics battalion, but also to make sure that we can account for all of our equipment that they are using in operations.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the military is full of acronyms. An FOB is a forward operating base. This would be a site that is separate and distinct from the main base at Kandahar airfield. It would be a tactical location that would have 50 to 200 troops associated with it. It would be in an area probably 20 to 50 kilometres from the main airfield, and it would be located in an area of tactical importance, one that would allow soldiers to conduct their operations more efficiently and more effectively, because they wouldn't have to travel to that area to conduct those operations.

Public Accounts committee  Every forward operating base that we operate by ourselves has an outstanding level of security. To this point there has been no indication of a break-in by anyone into those forward locations. Certainly at Kandahar airfield, where we share those security requirements with our allies, the security requirements are absolutely stringent, and there is a layered defence to the airfield.

Public Accounts committee  Thanks very much, sir. I was the commander during the time of the audit, but more particularly, the commander when the Nyalas were being introduced into theatre. The one thing that made it a success story from my standpoint is the fact that the manufacturer provided us with two individuals, two civilian technical experts—“field service representatives” they were called—who provided us with the expertise, not only on how to maintain this vehicle, but also to help the drivers to use the right techniques to manoeuvre it through some of the terribly complex and rough terrain the vice-chief has spoken about.

National Defence committee  I can see the face, but the name escapes me right now. If I can get the name, I can certainly look it up for you.

National Defence committee  We appreciate talking about what is clearly an important subject to you and to us. Taking soldiers overseas into a combat mission is both an honour and a privilege. It is also a huge responsibility. Bringing those young men and women home is an equally big responsibility. Do we have a perfect system to make sure no one falls through the cracks?

National Defence committee  There is a policy called “universality of service”. In general terms, soldiers are expected to be at a minimum level of fitness and employability for operations. If a soldier does not meet that minimum standard, then there is the potential that they could be released at some point after that.

National Defence committee  This is something that the army put in place. It was a team of three people: one who was technically qualified, an officer who could look at equipment; and an officer and an NCO who would look at tactics, techniques, and procedures--the way we did business in theatre. They would look at every incident that transpired, or the vast majority of them--if there was a mine strike or if there was combat action--to see how we could get better, how we could learn from what we had done.

National Defence committee  I will say that the Canadian Forces is a selfless organization. We've invested a lot of time and effort in training soldiers and officers, and our aim is not to get rid of them. Our aim is to keep them and get them back to a healthy situation so we can employ them again. My experience is that we will often err on the side of the soldier more and more to make sure we give them absolutely every opportunity to get their health back so that we can get them back to work.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. It's one of those things where we try to find where they can best be employed. And if they don't have the physical capability to be in the infantry, we can move them somewhere else. If their vision fails, it's the same issue. If they don't have the vision for a certain classification, we'll see if we can get them into a classification where their vision doesn't need to be as good.

National Defence committee  No.

National Defence committee  Certainly from my standpoint I didn't see a trend in any of those discriminators. There wasn't a specific rank; there wasn't a specific trade; there wasn't a male or female pattern to it. It almost struck randomly, or it struck across all ranks and trades almost equally.