Working every day in KAF (Kandahar Airfield) from eight in the morning until ten at night for six months is more than even this staff officer can take so fortunately the Canadian Forces provides for a leave period sometime during your tour in Afghanistan. I won't say halfway through it, because if that were the case everyone would be gone at the same time. Therefore during a six month tour you can expect to start your leave as soon as one month into your tour or as late as the second last month. Leave is important for anyone in the Canadian Forces, but if you're serving in Afghanistan it is what you live for. It will be the only break you get here.
Shortly after you arrive you are given your leave dates. They're not always the dates you want, but once you have them you can move on to the next step and that is planning. To help you, there is actually a Canadian Travel Office here in KAF. The level of assistance they provide you depends on whether you decide to return to Canada for your leave or whether you decide to go to a "third" location. Many decide to go back home, but just as many take the option of spending their leave in some exotic locale. Fiji, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil and Turkey are but a few examples. If you decide to go home the leave office books your flight to Canada for you. If you're off to a third location then you have to make your own booking, but then you also get to choose which airline you fly. To help offset the cost of transportation every Canadian soldier is provided with an allowance of $2078, provided you can produce receipts!
Once you've done all your planning and your flights are booked, the next step is to get to an airport outside of Afghanistan. To get you there you need to take a military aircraft. Either a Canadian Forces C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster will whisk you away from KAF and onto Camp Mirage, a place familiar to all soldiers as everyone has to pass through there to get to KAF to start their tour. After spending months in KAF arriving back in Camp Mirage is a welcome relief. Everyone comments about the absence of dust, which is remarkable because as the name implies Camp Mirage is surrounded by desert. However compared to KAF, Camp Mirage is an oasis.
In Camp Mirage a metamorphosis takes place. Like the caterpillar that turns into a butterfly soldiers turn in their weapons, pack away their military uniform and kit into the barrack box that they brought with them and store it in an ISO container for the duration of their leave. Then out come the "civvies". For many it is the first time in many months that they have worn civilian clothes and the first chance that they get to relax.
For a six month tour you are given 18 days of leave, but you're not expected to use up any of that time for travelling. You're actually given three days of travel time on each end. Because part of your journey is a Canadian military flight which is often delayed (or advanced) because of operational demands and the other part is with a civilian airline, which is seldom delayed one of those three days is a buffer day. That way if your military flight is delayed by a day you won't miss your civilian one. Often though, this simply means that you will spend a day in the "Host Nation" where Camp Mirage is located. No matter. Just being able to wear civilian clothes without having to carry a weapon and not having to work a 14 hour day is still a great start to your leave. And if you wish you can always take the bus that the Canadian Personnel Support Agency puts on to travel to the local shopping centre or to do some sight seeing.
After midnight on the third day you are allowed to go on your flight. As Camp Mirage is dry like KAF, your first chance to have a beer is on the other side of security at the airport where you can relax in one of the airport lounges while you are waiting for your flight to paradise, wherever that may be. As the airport is quite large there are many flights and often you can get a direct flight to your destination.
Like all leave it is over far too soon and before you know it, it is time to reverse the process. Back to the airport, back to Camp Mirage, out comes the barrack box and the butterfly turns back into a caterpillar. If you're lucky like I was, then your military flight is delayed and you get to see even more of the Host Nation. Sooner or later however it comes time to show up for roll call, draw your weapon and ammunition and board the plane dressed in your personal armor and helmet. If you're lucky again you get to fly back in a C-17 Globemaster. There's not really much difference in the noise or the comfort level between it and a C-130 Hercules, but because the C-17 Globemaster is a lot faster you don't have to endure it as much. And it is big. I've actually taught in schools where the gymnasium wasn't as big as the interior of a C-17 Globemaster. You really do have the feeling that you're inside a flying gym. It even has a small mezzanine level like some gyms do. They are the latest addition to Canada's air force and are a tremendous workhouse. More and more Canadian soldiers are receiving their first flight on what is easily the largest aircraft in the Canadian Forces.
And now that I explained the leave process here in Afghanistan you might be wondering where I spent my leave. As you didn't see me back home you may have guessed correctly that I picked the third location option. I spent 18 dust-free days in Australia where I climbed the Uluru (Ayer's Rock), saw the southern night sky in the desert, visited Rottnest Island and crossed the entire country by rail on the Indian Pacific and the Ghan (ironically the Ghan is short for the Afghan - Afghans and their camels helped build the railway and the train is named after them). So you can see my six months away from home wasn't all work.
