Post by SherbrookeJacobite on May 14, 2010 15:35:44 GMT -6
Many Camerons have proudly served their Country by serving in the Military. These brave men and women are the reason we are free. Today I came across an article about a young Cameron woman heading t Afganistan. She talks about her reasons for going, and what she is leaving behind. May God bless her and keep her safe!
"Tour of duty
by Corey LeBlanc coreyleblanc@thecasket.ca
Corporal Susanne Cameron flew to Afghanistan, but a bus had a lot to do with her arrival in the war-torn country as a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces.
“My whole first year over in Newfoundland I used to drive by the base everyday on the bus on my way home,” she said.
“Of course, they also have those ads inside the bus that say join the forces today – talking about all the benefits and stuff like that.
“It just seemed so ridiculous that I would drive by them every single day having wanted to do it for so long. I didn’t have a reason not to anymore because it was so convenient,” Cameron added.
While studying at Memorial University in St. John’s, where she graduated last spring with a biology degree, she eventually joined the reserves.
“It just kept thinking why haven’t I done it,” she said.
Cameron said her time serving with the military has been a tremendous experience.
“Obviously, it is not something for everyone, but I always thought it was something I could do and I wanted to do. Certainly there have been a million experiences that I have had that I would not have had an opportunity to do otherwise,” she added.
When asked what appealed to her about a military career, Cameron said it was “hard to describe.”
“We all kind of laugh at the commercials with the forces people coming out of helicopters and stuff like that. Obviously, that’s not the day-to-day stuff, but the excitement and the idea it is something completely different appealed to me,” she said.
Borrowing the familiar Canadian armed forces phrase, Cameron said there truly is “no life like it.”
“I was on the ranges for the last couple of weeks. I got to throw grenades and blow things up.
“It’s just like a completely different world, a completely different experience. It’s a challenge,” she said.
Cameron added there were a variety or reasons that made her decide to become a reservist.
“I wanted to try and just see if I liked it. Obviously, I do,” she laughed.
Cameron said the reserves were a perfect fit, particularly while she was in university.
“It is really flexible, but you still have the entire experience,” she added.
When she signed up, Cameron said making a tour in Afghanistan was part of the plan.
“I knew when I joined I wanted to go over there at some point,” she said.
Of course, her decision drew reaction from family and friends.
“When I first told them, it was sort of if you are happy we are happy for you. Obviously, we don’t want you to go, but they knew it was something I wanted to do,” Cameron said.
“As it gets closer, they are more nervous. Everyone is nervous understandably, but it is not so bad.”
Cameron said her choice to help with the Canadian military effort was an easy one.
“I look at my life and I am so privileged to have what I do. I have a university degree. I have a great family and friends and a home I can always come back to,” she said.
Cameron said she feels even more privileged when she considers the living conditions in Afghanistan, particularly for women.
“As a woman with a university degree to hear that little girls cannot even go to school without the threat of death or having acid thrown in their face and stuff like that, I knew it was something I wanted to do,” she added.
Cameron said it was not a matter of “why, but why not?” when making the decision.
“At the end of the day, I just feel like that my life is so good, why shouldn’t I go help these people when given the opportunity?”
Cameron’s tour is scheduled for seven months, which includes three weeks leave. After a month in Afghanistan, she will take her leave and then return to complete the tour.
“We have gotten the official date, but at this point it looks like we will be coming back in November or December,” she said.
Dangerous work
While in Afghanistan, Cameron will be a member of an EROC (Expedient Route Opening Capabilities) unit. More specifically, she will serve with 4ESR (Engineer Support Regiment), which is based out of Gagetown, N.B.
“There are a lot of us going over,” she said.
With the EROC unit, Cameron said they travel roads looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), detecting them before someone drives over them and gets hit.
“I will probably be doing rear security or VPS [vulnerable point search],” she said.
With rear security, Cameron said troops travel with a light armoured vehicle that looks like a tank, which is mounted with machine guns.
“It basically is to keep vehicles from getting too close to our vehicles,” she said.
Cameron described videos of the convoys, which include a variety of equipment and vehicles used in the IED search as “amazing.”
“The cars just move out of the way because they know what’s happening,” she said, noting with the risk of IEDs they cannot let anyone get too close.
Cameron said part of the training for her tour took place in California, which helped immensely in preparing for the terrain and heat that she will face in Afghanistan.
“That’s why they don’t push you out the door as soon as you get there because you have to have the time to acclimatize to it,” she said.
“Obviously, it is going to be really, really rough once it gets hot over there. It is just something you have to get used to.”
In training, Cameron said members have the “kitchen sink thrown at them.”
“They throw the unexpected at us as well. You learn to be flexible and to make good decisions while you are doing it,” she added.
Mixed feelings
A few days before her deployment, Cameron said it was becoming more “nerve wracking.”
“It is because reality starts to hit [you],” she added.
“Last weekend I was in Halifax and I sort of started to think this is my last weekend before I go to Afghanistan. It is kind of a bizarre thing to have in your head.
“At the same time, where I have wanted it for so long, I am still sort of happy that it is going to be happening and I am actually going to get to do what I have wanted to do since I first joined the army.”
With a chuckle, she said her feelings depend on the time of the day.
“I am nervous, happy or excited – there are a lot of different emotions going on, but I am excited and I want to go,” she added.
Considering her life will be on the line everyday, is she scared?
“One of the guys that have been over kind of put it perfectly. He described when he first got out of the vehicle to do a VPS search,” she recalled, noting he said he was calm and comfortable with his training as he approached the first mission.
“When he got out, he was like ‘oh, crap, I am in Afghanistan.’ He said you are looking around and staring at the ground and you get a little freaked out and paranoid type thing as you would.”
Cameron said those are types of feelings she is prepared to deal with.
“It is something I am not thinking of all the time that my life is going to be in constant danger because with all the training I have received you are very competent and confident in your job, so it sort of mitigates the risk,” she said.
“If we were less well-trained, there would be more worry about it. I trust in the guys I am going to be working with and the equipment we are going to be working with – our training protocols and everything. It’s makes you less nervous about the whole thing. I feel prepared.”
Leaving home
Cameron said the hardest part will be leaving family and friends.
“That was really the deciding factor for me whether or not I was going to apply to go, how much the people that cared about me were going to suffer while I was there,” she said.
“But, when it comes down to it, I have to do what I think is right for me and best for me because at the end of the day it is my life. If anything would have stopped me from going, it was knowing how hard it is going to be for everyone else at home.”
Other than family and friends, including her parents and cat, Cameron said she will miss the “company of women” the most.
“I am the only girl in EROC. There are 24 of us and I am the only girl. It’s just not the same,” she laughed.
“My closest friends are girls and you get used to that. It’s not that I don’t like the guys and stuff, but you can’t really talk about shopping or any of that kind of fun stuff.”
Food is another item on the list of things Cameron will miss.
“It is not that it is horrible food over there because God love the cooks - I have so much respect for the cooks - because nothing affects morale more than good food,” she said.
“But, when you actually have to go out and eat the rations everyday, it is tough to get used to. The rations have been getting better but it is definitely not the same as a home-cooked meal.”
Back to school
After she completes her tour, Cameron said she will continue her work with the reserves, but she doesn’t envision a future as a member of the regular armed forces.
“There are still opportunities if you want to go on tours and stuff like that, but you still get the flexibility of having a normal life at the same time.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” she added about remaining a reservist.
Topping the list of plans for Cameron upon her return is studies at the Memorial University Marine Institute.
“They have an advanced diploma in sustainable aquaculture. It is a year-long intensive program with a work term at the end,” she explained.
“The more I look into it the more excited I am to actually do it because I will have a lot of different opportunities and it is building on my degree. I am really looking forward to doing it,” she added.
Realistic goals
Cameron said she doesn’t have any particular goals for her tour, other than to do her part to help the people of Afghanistan.
“One of the things I didn’t want to think about was that we are going to go over there and see this huge drastic change that we would have made in the country,” she said.
“In my role, you are sort of a little cog in a big machine and you have to have faith that the machine as a whole is making big change. I am not working with the provincial reconstruction team, say, so I am not necessarily going to get to see them build schools and make those types of differences in the community.”
Cameron said she is aware of the importance of her role in helping make things safer for soldiers, which enables the rebuilding of the country to continue.
“It is not so much about seeing a big sweeping change from my own personal contribution it is more about knowing I am helping on the whole,” she said.
“If I can come back and say I did my job to the best of my abilities everyday I will be very satisfied with having gone over there.”
(Editor’s note: Heatherton native Susanne Cameron spoke with the Casket a week before departing for Afghanistan on a tour as a Canadian Armed Forces reservist.)"
"Tour of duty
by Corey LeBlanc coreyleblanc@thecasket.ca
Corporal Susanne Cameron flew to Afghanistan, but a bus had a lot to do with her arrival in the war-torn country as a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces.
“My whole first year over in Newfoundland I used to drive by the base everyday on the bus on my way home,” she said.
“Of course, they also have those ads inside the bus that say join the forces today – talking about all the benefits and stuff like that.
“It just seemed so ridiculous that I would drive by them every single day having wanted to do it for so long. I didn’t have a reason not to anymore because it was so convenient,” Cameron added.
While studying at Memorial University in St. John’s, where she graduated last spring with a biology degree, she eventually joined the reserves.
“It just kept thinking why haven’t I done it,” she said.
Cameron said her time serving with the military has been a tremendous experience.
“Obviously, it is not something for everyone, but I always thought it was something I could do and I wanted to do. Certainly there have been a million experiences that I have had that I would not have had an opportunity to do otherwise,” she added.
When asked what appealed to her about a military career, Cameron said it was “hard to describe.”
“We all kind of laugh at the commercials with the forces people coming out of helicopters and stuff like that. Obviously, that’s not the day-to-day stuff, but the excitement and the idea it is something completely different appealed to me,” she said.
Borrowing the familiar Canadian armed forces phrase, Cameron said there truly is “no life like it.”
“I was on the ranges for the last couple of weeks. I got to throw grenades and blow things up.
“It’s just like a completely different world, a completely different experience. It’s a challenge,” she said.
Cameron added there were a variety or reasons that made her decide to become a reservist.
“I wanted to try and just see if I liked it. Obviously, I do,” she laughed.
Cameron said the reserves were a perfect fit, particularly while she was in university.
“It is really flexible, but you still have the entire experience,” she added.
When she signed up, Cameron said making a tour in Afghanistan was part of the plan.
“I knew when I joined I wanted to go over there at some point,” she said.
Of course, her decision drew reaction from family and friends.
“When I first told them, it was sort of if you are happy we are happy for you. Obviously, we don’t want you to go, but they knew it was something I wanted to do,” Cameron said.
“As it gets closer, they are more nervous. Everyone is nervous understandably, but it is not so bad.”
Cameron said her choice to help with the Canadian military effort was an easy one.
“I look at my life and I am so privileged to have what I do. I have a university degree. I have a great family and friends and a home I can always come back to,” she said.
Cameron said she feels even more privileged when she considers the living conditions in Afghanistan, particularly for women.
“As a woman with a university degree to hear that little girls cannot even go to school without the threat of death or having acid thrown in their face and stuff like that, I knew it was something I wanted to do,” she added.
Cameron said it was not a matter of “why, but why not?” when making the decision.
“At the end of the day, I just feel like that my life is so good, why shouldn’t I go help these people when given the opportunity?”
Cameron’s tour is scheduled for seven months, which includes three weeks leave. After a month in Afghanistan, she will take her leave and then return to complete the tour.
“We have gotten the official date, but at this point it looks like we will be coming back in November or December,” she said.
Dangerous work
While in Afghanistan, Cameron will be a member of an EROC (Expedient Route Opening Capabilities) unit. More specifically, she will serve with 4ESR (Engineer Support Regiment), which is based out of Gagetown, N.B.
“There are a lot of us going over,” she said.
With the EROC unit, Cameron said they travel roads looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), detecting them before someone drives over them and gets hit.
“I will probably be doing rear security or VPS [vulnerable point search],” she said.
With rear security, Cameron said troops travel with a light armoured vehicle that looks like a tank, which is mounted with machine guns.
“It basically is to keep vehicles from getting too close to our vehicles,” she said.
Cameron described videos of the convoys, which include a variety of equipment and vehicles used in the IED search as “amazing.”
“The cars just move out of the way because they know what’s happening,” she said, noting with the risk of IEDs they cannot let anyone get too close.
Cameron said part of the training for her tour took place in California, which helped immensely in preparing for the terrain and heat that she will face in Afghanistan.
“That’s why they don’t push you out the door as soon as you get there because you have to have the time to acclimatize to it,” she said.
“Obviously, it is going to be really, really rough once it gets hot over there. It is just something you have to get used to.”
In training, Cameron said members have the “kitchen sink thrown at them.”
“They throw the unexpected at us as well. You learn to be flexible and to make good decisions while you are doing it,” she added.
Mixed feelings
A few days before her deployment, Cameron said it was becoming more “nerve wracking.”
“It is because reality starts to hit [you],” she added.
“Last weekend I was in Halifax and I sort of started to think this is my last weekend before I go to Afghanistan. It is kind of a bizarre thing to have in your head.
“At the same time, where I have wanted it for so long, I am still sort of happy that it is going to be happening and I am actually going to get to do what I have wanted to do since I first joined the army.”
With a chuckle, she said her feelings depend on the time of the day.
“I am nervous, happy or excited – there are a lot of different emotions going on, but I am excited and I want to go,” she added.
Considering her life will be on the line everyday, is she scared?
“One of the guys that have been over kind of put it perfectly. He described when he first got out of the vehicle to do a VPS search,” she recalled, noting he said he was calm and comfortable with his training as he approached the first mission.
“When he got out, he was like ‘oh, crap, I am in Afghanistan.’ He said you are looking around and staring at the ground and you get a little freaked out and paranoid type thing as you would.”
Cameron said those are types of feelings she is prepared to deal with.
“It is something I am not thinking of all the time that my life is going to be in constant danger because with all the training I have received you are very competent and confident in your job, so it sort of mitigates the risk,” she said.
“If we were less well-trained, there would be more worry about it. I trust in the guys I am going to be working with and the equipment we are going to be working with – our training protocols and everything. It’s makes you less nervous about the whole thing. I feel prepared.”
Leaving home
Cameron said the hardest part will be leaving family and friends.
“That was really the deciding factor for me whether or not I was going to apply to go, how much the people that cared about me were going to suffer while I was there,” she said.
“But, when it comes down to it, I have to do what I think is right for me and best for me because at the end of the day it is my life. If anything would have stopped me from going, it was knowing how hard it is going to be for everyone else at home.”
Other than family and friends, including her parents and cat, Cameron said she will miss the “company of women” the most.
“I am the only girl in EROC. There are 24 of us and I am the only girl. It’s just not the same,” she laughed.
“My closest friends are girls and you get used to that. It’s not that I don’t like the guys and stuff, but you can’t really talk about shopping or any of that kind of fun stuff.”
Food is another item on the list of things Cameron will miss.
“It is not that it is horrible food over there because God love the cooks - I have so much respect for the cooks - because nothing affects morale more than good food,” she said.
“But, when you actually have to go out and eat the rations everyday, it is tough to get used to. The rations have been getting better but it is definitely not the same as a home-cooked meal.”
Back to school
After she completes her tour, Cameron said she will continue her work with the reserves, but she doesn’t envision a future as a member of the regular armed forces.
“There are still opportunities if you want to go on tours and stuff like that, but you still get the flexibility of having a normal life at the same time.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” she added about remaining a reservist.
Topping the list of plans for Cameron upon her return is studies at the Memorial University Marine Institute.
“They have an advanced diploma in sustainable aquaculture. It is a year-long intensive program with a work term at the end,” she explained.
“The more I look into it the more excited I am to actually do it because I will have a lot of different opportunities and it is building on my degree. I am really looking forward to doing it,” she added.
Realistic goals
Cameron said she doesn’t have any particular goals for her tour, other than to do her part to help the people of Afghanistan.
“One of the things I didn’t want to think about was that we are going to go over there and see this huge drastic change that we would have made in the country,” she said.
“In my role, you are sort of a little cog in a big machine and you have to have faith that the machine as a whole is making big change. I am not working with the provincial reconstruction team, say, so I am not necessarily going to get to see them build schools and make those types of differences in the community.”
Cameron said she is aware of the importance of her role in helping make things safer for soldiers, which enables the rebuilding of the country to continue.
“It is not so much about seeing a big sweeping change from my own personal contribution it is more about knowing I am helping on the whole,” she said.
“If I can come back and say I did my job to the best of my abilities everyday I will be very satisfied with having gone over there.”
(Editor’s note: Heatherton native Susanne Cameron spoke with the Casket a week before departing for Afghanistan on a tour as a Canadian Armed Forces reservist.)"