LARRY CLINTON
Between soup-like mud in winter and heat too strong for daylight
concrete pours in summer, weather proved one of Larry Clinton’s
biggest challenges in Afghanistan. The Coordinator, Professional
Services Contracts deployed to Kandahar Airport for six months in
November 2008 as a construction contract coordinator, managing
the process to build a helicopter ramp for the Griffon and Chinook
helicopters. The $6-million project began as 53,000-m2 of 30-cm deep
concrete (the area was later expanded by a third), and the timeline was
high pressure. “They ended up with a mini air wing,” Clinton says,
with operating areas for aircraft, maintenance staff and everything
required to keep the aircraft in the air. Major technical issues included
the need for a subgrade structure that could carry the concrete’s weight
even in the rainy winter, and a raw material supply via transport trucks
vulnerable to attack enroute through the Khyber Pass. Contractors
taking products out to the forward operating bases were also vulnerable
to IEDs. “We take that back with us,” he says, remembering the local
and international contractors who were killed or injured on the
mission. “Those things do dance across your mind eventually.”
JANETTE BRODEUR
For Janette Brodeur, Site Manager, it’s the Afghan workers who stand
out as special memories from the six months she spent managing
projects at Camp Nathan Smith in 2008–09. Local contractors
worked on projects such as upgrading observation towers, building an
ablutions facility and assembling ISO (prefabricated) complexes that
included a church, post office and accommodations — but they often
weren’t used to standard Canadian practices such as safety measures.
“You had to ensure there was safety on the site, but you had to use your
common sense as well,” she recalls. “There was a lot of showing and
mentoring, but the thing that made the whole trip (was the owner of
the contracting company) who sent me an e-mail thanking me for my
small part in trying to help his country. That for me was very emotional.
Even now I sometimes think about the contractors and wonder where
they’re at and what their lives are like. It certainly made it really clear
how fortunate I am to have been born and raised in North America.
I’m so grateful for what I have and the people in my life.”
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NATIONAL DAY OF HONOUR — MAY 9, 2014