Suicide Bomber Attacks

A couple of occasions actually where suicide bombers had actually managed to detonate themselves a little too close to our convoys and in doing so obviously with the damage that had occurred, we had to stop all our vehicles and perform an all around defence in order to protect the remainder until we could make sense of what had happened and repair anything that was required in being able to move on again. And I find those were the most meaningful moments where my training had kicked in in not even having to think to mark my own position within the defence and to be able to mind my arcs and make sure that everything was status quo and that there weren't other enemies just off on the sideline waiting to take advantage of our prone position. I was quite struck on a couple of occasions how the local media had seemed to be able to locate our position as quickly as they did, of course the big clouds of smoke and so forth probably gave it away very well. But having to be able to maintain an area where people can, are only allowed to come up so close with respect to the fact that we don't know who they might end up being and frankly there isn't anyone that would have the legitimacy of coming any closer to us for any reason and having to guard against that while other people with their responsibilities had fixed up the injured and got the vehicles back up and running. Those were definitely, definitely peak times for myself especially in validating the training that I had been given and putting it to task.

Mr. Roberts speaks about a couple of occasions where suicide bombers detonated themselves a little too close to their convoys, a situation where training becomes key in the ability to control a very tense environment.

Allan Roberts

Mr. Allan Roberts was born March 11, 1974 in Ottawa, Ontario. Always having the desire to be part of the Canadian Forces Mr. Roberts chose to join the Infantry Reserve Unit in Trenton, Ontario. During his time in the reserves, Mr. Roberts was given the opportunity to become part of the army and accept a deployment position to Bosnia. This experience allowed him to put his training to task and work on par with the Royal Canadian Dragoons holding rank of Master Corporal taking on the daily occupation of patrol and convoy escort. After Mr. Roberrt's deployment to Bosnia, he was once again accepted to deploy to Afghanistan under the same rank and occupation but in a more intense level of service and different cultural environment. After his deployment was complete, Mr. Roberts returned to Ottawa, Ontario. Mr. Roberts is now retired from the military