EDMONTON (CP) — Christy Laidlaw was serving eggs and bacon in her local coffee shop when she heard of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center. Toyo Turner was driving to work.
Today, Laidlaw is a soldier just back from the dust, heat and rocket-propelled grenades of the fight against the Taliban. Turner is mourning her brother William, a reservist killed by a roadside bomb in that same fighting.
Their changing understanding of Sept. 11 over the last five years — from uncertainty to tragedy to renewed purpose — reflects that of Canada’s entire military family. Some soldiers hope that progression spreads to the entire nation.
“Canada needs Afghanistan the way Afghanistan needs Canadians,” said Cpl. Ashley vanLeeuwen of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, still wheelchair-bound after a serious convoy accident near Spin Boldack.
“We’ve got a job to do there that’s significant enough that we should be the ones doing it.”
Even many senior officers didn’t realize how things would change when the first incredible reports of the attacks on the twin towers began circulating.
“No, I didn’t,” admits Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, now commander of army forces in Western Canada.
“My focus then was trying to help our American friends and allies deal with what was a very tragic situation for them,” said Grant, who was then working in international operations in Ottawa.
Maj. Tod Strickland of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was then in command of the military’s staff college. He didn’t suspect where the attacks would lead Canada either.
“I don’t think we envisioned at that time that it would be as significant in our day-to-day life as it ultimately was, or that it would ultimately result in us ending up in Afghanistan.”
But for Laidlaw, the attack gave her the impetus to finally commit to something she’d been tossing around for a long time.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to wear a uniform and it just solidified the ‘Yes, this is what I need to do. I need to be part of whatever’s going to happen in the next decade,’” said Laidlaw, a wiry young woman who has since seen action in Panjwaii, the district west of Kandahar that has given Canadian soldiers trouble for months and where five have died in the last week alone.
“I’m going to join the military and be part of the fight.”
Turner’s brother William, considering re-enlisting in the reserves, came to the same conclusion.
“The reason he was in the military reserve had a lot to do with what happened on 9-11,” says Turner.
“I’m sure that had part of the overall effect, that if we don’t help out where individuals like the Taliban are happening, it’s going to come to our home.”
Ultimately, William Turner died, killed in a grenade attack last April. Toyo Turner has recently attended a string of military ceremonies since the return of the soldiers with whom her brother served.
“I knew August was going to be a hard month,” she said last week at a change of command ceremony for the Patricias at the Edmonton Garrison.
“Coming here today has been difficult, but it’s also been satisfying knowing that he’s not forgotten.”
She hasn’t forgotten the purpose behind the tragedy.
“We’ve never had to fight a war here,” she said. “We’ve been very distanced from that. As Canadians I think we need to help other people in other countries, and 9-11 just brought it to the front, that it can be brought home to us.”
Not all in the military found renewed purpose when the twin towers toppled. Capt. Jon Hamilton, wounded in Afghanistan earlier this month in a grenade attack, didn’t need it.
“I joined regardless of Sept. 11 or any other major events. It’s not that one event: ‘Oh, we’re soldiers now.’
“We signed up ready to fight and if they send us in, we’ll do it.”
But others say that Sept. 11 and the Afghanistan campaign that flowed from it not only reminded the military of why it exists — it should give the whole country a renewed outlook.
Soldiers are always willing to fight, says vanLeeuwen.
“Everyone wants to go to the show. We want to know what it’s all about and we want to do it for real.”
Sept. 11, he says, has given Canada as a nation a chance to step up.
“Being Canadian, I think we should be at the forefront and helping the world.”
