Fear of the Unknown

Interviewer: If you can help us understand what it was like when you first arrived in Afghanistan? It was pretty overwhelming. I mean I was excited at the opportunity to actually do something for my country cause you always sort of say I want to do this for my country but, you know, to actually be doing something very positive. It was very good but it was scary as well because you never knew if anything was going to happen, you know, you could go out in your vehicles and drive and wonder are there any IEDs out there? I was fortunate, I was in Kabul rather than Kandahar. The level of violence, there wasn't really any violence I mean there was violence but not directed towards us. You spent so much time on camp. We did go out some but we didn't mingle a lot with the locals. They had a bazaar which they brought, which the merchants could sell some of the goods and they were searched and everything before they were let in the vicinity of the camp and that was our main interaction with others. Yes, we did drive by and we would see people. We saw the destruction which was quite shocking, I guess, really.

Ms. Berkshire expresses her feelings about being in Kabul and the interaction with the locals.

Sara Berkshire

Ms. Sara Berkshire was born August 5, 1964 in Comox, British Columbia. Growing up in a military family, Sara was very interested in serving her country, wanting to make it her number one goal in life! To begin her military career, Sara briefly joined Cadets. Later on, she enlisted with the Army as a Communication Researcher holding rank of Corporal. As well as serving In-Canada, Sara served on missions to Kabul, Afghanistan. After being medically discharged in 2008, Sara left the Canadian Forces after 17 years service. Sara now resides in Kingston, Ontario.