Blended in, Less of a Target

Heroes Remember

Blended in, Less of a Target

Transcript

The city itself was dangerous because there was no control over traffic. I was more afraid of driving from locations back and forth than I was of driving through the city because I had a sense of control when we were driving in our vehicles because they were unmarked. We weren’t driving in military patterned vehicles. We were driving in SUV’s that looked like every other SUV. Some of them were armoured, up armoured but for the most part we were driving around in Pajaros and Isuzu troopers and stuff that looked like every other rich Afghani would drive around in and there was dozens of them. So you kind of blended in so I felt, you feel like less of a target. Where I would be concerned was in military convoy. I knew we were being targeted because I was an intelligence operator so I knew what the threats were and in a way it made it worse because that’s all I dealt with on a daily basis. I dealt with potential threats to this, potential threats to that, IED’s being set up on this route, you know, observation on NATO members here. It makes you paranoid so that’s all you are thinking about so when you’re driving out the front gate and you’re driving to, you know, place X or place B for a meeting with this government official or that government official, it makes you a little bit paranoid. Then the fact that people drive one hundred miles an hour without lights on, total disregard for any traffic lights, traffic circles, it gets a bit hairy.

Description

Mr. Palmer speaks of the many circumstances that make for an uneasy routine of military patrol within a convoy.

Phil Palmer

Mr. Phil Palmer was born October 16, 1969 in Calgary, Alberta. Mr. Palmer’s desire for the military started at a very young age as he always knew someday he would join. After graduating from high school, Mr. Palmer immediately enlisted in the military. Mr. Palmer joined the infantry with the Royal Canadian Regiment, was a member of the Airborne Regiment as a Paratrooper 3 Commando and later transferred to the Intelligence Operations as an Intelligence Operator. Over the course of 26 years, Mr. Palmer deployed to areas of Somalia, Bosnia and two deployments to Afghanistan. Mr. Palmer discharged from the military and now resides in Ottawa with his wife and family.

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