Firefight in Kandahar

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Firefight in Kandahar

Story by Sharon Adams

For weeks in April 2011, Kandahar in Afghanistan had endured an increasing number of Taliban attacks. On May 7, the city of a million descended into chaos.

Somewhere between 60 and 100 insurgents and 20 suicide bombers attacked multiple targets, including the governor’s compound, Afghan army headquarters, three police stations, the mayor’s office, two high schools and an Afghanistan intelligence agency office. Insurgents had taken over a three-storey shopping centre and were shooting down into the governor’s compound.

The Afghan National Police sent in their special response team, and soon help was asked of Canadian Special Operations Task Force 58 and the embedded partnering team at forward operating base Graceland, commanded by Captain David Suffoletta.

One of the team’s first objectives was clearing the massive shopping centre, a job that took about 12 hours.

‘And all who sail in her. . . .’

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

There was a bit of a row across the pond recently after the Scottish Maritime Museum decided to adopt gender-neutral signage for its vessels.

Museum director David Mann told The Guardian newspaper the decision to drop “she” for “it” when referencing ships was made after two signs were vandalized, presumably by folks opposed to the feminization of inanimate objects, a practice also applied to man’s other favourite toys: planes, trains and automobiles.

“The debate around gender and ships is wide-ranging, pitting tradition against the modern world,” Mann said. “But I think that we have to move with the times.”

Not so, the Royal Navy, which said it has no plans to abandon its longstanding tradition of referring to its ships as “she.”

Nor does the Royal Canadian Navy which, like its sister service across the pond, has no formal policy on the matter to abandon—only tradition, with which it intends to stick, said one officer, “until we are told otherwise.”

Citizens of War
National Magazine Awards Nominee

Legion Magazine’s photo essay “Citizens of War”by Stephen J. Thorne has been nominated for BEST PHOTOJOURNALISM & PHOTO ESSAYat the 42nd annual National Magazine Awards on May 31. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!