Christie Blatchford: Retired soldier who helped bring back Kandahar memorial is furious, too, about its fate

Part of the memorial to Canadians killed on the Afghan mission, at Kandahar Airfield. W.E. Storey Collection

Ed Storey retired soldier who helped recover the Kandahar memorial is also furious at his fates. Likewise, Storey is worried. Did the restorers do it well? He cannot go to the memorial to see. ‘I’m retired’, he said.

According to the retired soldier who led the effort to collect souvenirs and historical material from the Afghanistan mission, Ed Storey, the recent inauguration of the memorial to the Kandahar battlefield in secret, in a secure site of the Department of National Defense that is closed to the public, it was not an aberration or supervision. In fact, it ensures that much of the material has been dispersed to units, is stored or has vanished at least from their point of view.

It should be noted that former Warrant Officer Ed Storey was the war chronicler of the headquarters of the Expeditionary Force Command of Canada. In this way, he has expressed, “Our whole ethos is we (the government) talk the talk, but we really do not spend any money. It’s just lip service”.

Important facts

It is necessary to emphasize that he was the driving force behind Operation Keepsake, a three-person team that traveled first to Camp Mirage, Canada’s base for Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates, and then to Kandahar Air Field, where the Kandahar memorial arose. when Canada began to suffer casualties in the country ravaged by war. Likewise, he later did the same kind of work in Ma’Sum Ghar, a Canadian outpost now abandoned in Kandahar.

In this way, consequently, that the stones could not be returned to Canada, they were formally buried in Afghan soil under the watchful eye of a shepherd. In fact, through a telephone interview from his home in Ottawa Storey, he expressed, “It was all emotional and meaningful work”.

Even so, it is necessary to say that Storey still cares: is the Kandahar stone the same as it was? Did the restorers do it right? I cannot go to the memorial to see for himself. “I’m retired”, he said.

Likewise, Storey has expressed, “It’s easier to do nothing”, I also add, “and seek forgiveness later. It’s so disheartening to see. The potential was huge, and it was squandered away”.

Source: Christie Blatchford | National Post