Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army

by Christie Blatchford

Book Overview

Long before she made her first trip to Afghanistan as an embedded reporter for The Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford was already one of Canada's most respected and eagerly read journalists. Her vivid prose, her unmistakable voice, her ability to connect emotionally with her subjects and readers, her hard-won and hard-nosed skills as a reporter-these had already established her as a household name. But with her many reports from Afghanistan,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385664672
• ISBN13: 9780385664677
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Anchor Canada
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Getting to know Canada's true heroes.

Christie Blatachford's FIFTEEN DAYS is a 'must read' for anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the world of Canadian troops serving their country (and the Afghan people) in Afghanistan. Blatchford takes the reader to the front lines, and into the minds of soldiers fighting an enemy who appears from nowhere and is a constant threat. (One might sub-title this book: Trying to Find the Taliban). She also describes a country of great beauty, as well as one stricken with a dry, hot desolation. That contrast is also evident in the support the troops receive from the local population. Some helpful to the Canadians, some who live in fear of the Taliban, some who are perhaps still loyal to the Taliban. In some of her journalistic writing, I have often found Ms. Blatchford goes a bit overboard trying to tug at our emotions. Not here. Perhaps because she is managing her considerable skills at their peak, and partly because she realizes it is unnecessary, given the material. There's enough here to weep about with the uninterrupted deaths of men and women gracing each chapter. And lots to celebrate that Canada has produced the kind of soldiers ready to take on such a dangerous mission. Who knows if we will 'win' in Afghanistan. But I don't think the Canadian soldiers there need fear their contribution and sacrifice will be forgotten. Thanks to the job they are doing, and Ms. Blatchford's excellent reporting.

Canada has no idea how lucky it is

Bob Patterson's review really captured a lot of what I was feeling. As a former member of the Canadian Army, I was not only able to see in my mind's eye the scenes that Christie was describing, I was able to see many of the soldiers, often because I actually knew those men. The Canadian Army is not big - and the Army of West is probably about 6,000 Regulars and a few more thousand reservists - that's not a very big town, and all of the larger than life characters tend to become known by all - men like Mars Janek, whom I had the honor to serve with back in 1995, and who features prominently in this book as the extraordinary soldier that he is. Canadians really have no idea how lucky they are that these bright young men and women are willing to put their lives on the line in the service of their country. Christie did a great job with this book, and clearly she wrote it her own way. My only real citicism is that I would have liked her to spend a bit more time of the achievements and field operations, and a little bit less on deaths, but I understand why she went the route that she did.

The New Canadian Army

The Canadian army is very small - many organizations claim to be like a "family" but the Canadian Army is a family. In the larger world there may be 6 degrees of separation but in the Canadian Army there may be only two. So every loss is a wound for all. Every loss is indeed the death of a brother. This remarkable book is a revelation of what it may mean to be part of a true Band of Brothers - a world where the most senior general lends a master corporal his own wedding ring so that he can ask his girl to marry him - a world where the entire platoon comes to the home of a fallen comrade and spends a week in the community celebrating his life - a world where a 40 plus year old widow enlists so that she can continue to be part of the family - a world where Colonels weep for their men. The book also causes the reader to think more deeply about war and soldiers. It is politically correct to feel that all war and everything about it is bad. But we discover, that for all its terror and for all the losses, for a soldier war is what he lives for. It is when he also discovers whether he is any good at his life's work. We discover how good our soldiers are. Surprisingly, for we always think the less of ourselves, in Afghanistan, we are considered the heavy weights who punch well above our weight. We discover that while war exhausts a person more than any other activity, it also makes him more alive. We discover that PTSD is much more prevalent in peacekeeping than in the kind of situation that we find in Afghanistan. In peacekeeping the kit was awful and the impotence high - imagine simply witnessing atrocity? But in Afghanistan our soldiers can take the initiative and they are very well equipped and have rules of engagement that make sense. We discover a new kind of woman soldier - who are at home in this strange world, as is of course the "Blatch", and who are no longer seen as odd. We discover how the families of our soldiers have been integrated into the mission and we see how the worst of all news is given and how the families are supported when what they all fear the most occurs. This is not the civil service in green that was the sadness of our forces for many years. Implicit throughout the book is that someone really knows that he is doing. I think that someone might be called Rick Hillier. We discover how great our local field leadership is too which also says something more about General Hillier - Brig- Genl Dave Fraser to LTC Ian Hope, in radio orders given at 11.30pm on July 17 "You need to recapture Nawa and Garmser by 1600 hours. Hope to Fraser: "Roger that. Recapture Nawa and Garmser by 1600 hours." Fraser: "Any questions?" Hope: "Just one: Where are Nawa and Garmser?' Not only do we routinely pull off tough missions, but the Cols take all the risks that their men do - they lead by example. They also tend to do the really terrible things like personally extract the burnt and mutilated bodies of their dead so that