National Defence committee  Yes, sir, absolutely. General Grant may be in a better position to answer, because he had a team of soldiers in Afghanistan as part of his task force who were often deployed forward with us and the other units. Their sole raison d'être was to be there to capture lessons learned and up-to-date changes in enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures, and to get those back to Canada and into the training system as fast as possible.

National Defence committee  I reinforce that. In our case, in our battle group, again it wasn't PTSD, but the combat stress reactions that we had in theatre ranged from the youngest soldier to seasoned senior NCOs and officers as well. The thing I'd add, though, was that I was very satisfied—and I attributed it to our training as well—that given the significant amount of combat the battle group went through, we only had four combat stress reactions that required return to Canada.

National Defence committee  The only thing I would add from my perspective is that it is similar. Now we have four detachments of casualty support people in Petawawa. We also have four detachments from DVA, which is something we hadn't seen years ago. Now there are DVA detachments on bases. I've noticed a shift in perception in DVA.

National Defence committee  Again, I can speak of my experience as CO of 1 RCR. Certainly when we came back after the leave period of a month to six weeks, depending on when you come back from theatre, we very purposely put together a series of activities. They consisted of a medals parade, a memorial service, and then what amounted to a battle group celebration over a period of three days.

National Defence committee  I think it was very fortunate that we deployed back to Canada between February and March, and I didn't change command until the following June. So I had those four or five months with my entire team to maintain the cohesion. But before I changed command and my team changed, my number one priority was to look after both the soldiers and the families of soldiers who were injured and the families who had lost soldiers there.

National Defence committee  To be very frank, from my perspective, and I don't think it's changed, and also Colonel Hetherington's as a fellow CO, the time to try to get fit or even maintain fitness isn't when you're deployed into theatre and engaged in combat operations, as we were. The corollary to that is the absolute insistence on the high degree of physical fitness and preparation before going into theatre.

National Defence committee  I can probably take that, because the bulk of my troops were deployed forward, outside of the main airfield for almost the entire duration of our time there. There is a significant amount of infrastructure in place. I think you would be pleasantly surprised. Certainly the policy was in place when my tour was out.

National Defence committee  Certainly in my opinion I probably had the same sort of apprehensiveness that General Grant had mentioned about going there and thinking rather about just getting home. After the few days there I came to the same conclusion. It was a good and required buffer from going from a combat zone to meeting up with your family a few days later.

National Defence committee  I could probably take that one on with a few examples. The first part, sir--and I think we've gone a long way in the forces--is creating a command culture in which we don't differentiate between a physical wound and a mental wound. It's easy to stand up in front of your troops and say that as part of your pre-deployment briefings.

National Defence committee  I was particularly happy to see that progress. When we came back from our tour, we had a number of visits from the director of casualty support here, out of Ottawa. It became apparent, through lessons I learned from our tour and certainly from the PPCLI Battle Group before us, that the directorate of casualty support needed to branch out and now start putting detachments forward at the bases where the troops would be returning.

National Defence committee  It's a responsibility to ensure that the troops under your command, if they're injured, no matter how, have the injury documented and tracked. The system isn't perfect. But even if the soldier is injured playing hockey in CFB Petawawa, nothing to do with duty, there's an obligation for the chain of command to ensure that it's been documented.

National Defence committee  It often surprised me for the most part that they're certainly professionals as well and a lot of them have been in a lot of not-so-nice places in the world. It always struck me that, surprisingly, they handled some pretty tight situations as well as they did. Just to build on what Colonel Hetherington said on the other aspects of civilians in the battle space, which is a term we use now, I do remember when PRT was training initially.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. Absolutely. It unfolds in two ways, from my experiences. One, as you're aware, I think, is that the commander of a unit that's about to deploy will go overseas at least twice--once on a strategic and once on a tactical reconnaissance. He is forward with the commanding officer, in our case, and we have an extensive opportunity to discuss everything from the operations to the more human aspects of dealing with combat.

National Defence committee  I think it's the training you receive. You might take it for granted until the first time you actually get into those situations and bullets are flying, but I certainly found that when you do get into those hard situations--and I've been in a few myself--the training did kick in pretty automatically.

National Defence committee  My overall operation was approximately seven months in theatre. Operation Medusa was about a three-month intensive operation.