Free No Lack of Courage by Colonel Bernd Horn

Copyright © Colonel Bernd Horn, 2010
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
    Editor: Cheryl Hawley
Design: Jennifer Scott
Printer: Webcom
    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
    Horn, Bernd, 1959-
    No lack of courage : Operation Medusa, Afghanistan / by Bernd Horn ; foreword by R.J. Hillier.
    Includes index.
Also issued in electronic format.
ISBN 978-1-55488-820-7
    1. Operation Medusa, Afghanistan, 2006. 2. Afghan War, 2001- --Regimental histories--Canada. 3. Canada--Armed Forces--Afghanistan. 4. Courage--Afghanistan--Case studies. I. Title.
    DS371.4123.O655H67 2010       958.104’7       C2010-902421-4
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Map by Chris Johnson.

F OREWORD
    I AM DELIGHTED to have been given the opportunity to write the foreword for
No Lack of Courage: Operation Medusa, Afghanistan
. As an officer in the Canadian Forces for over 35 years, I had the privilege of serving with many of the finest men and women Canada has to offer. Significantly, as the chief of the Defence Staff, I had the honour of commanding our country’s sons and daughters while our nation was at war. Throughout that period I was struck by the courage and tenacity of our service personnel and especially their families. Heroic individuals who, despite the pain of loss or grievous injury, maintained a stoic disposition because of their love of country and belief in the cause for which they or their loved ones fought. Their courage constantly buoyed my own spirit through those tragic periods when we suffered casualties.
    But more importantly, their strength reinforced my belief in our own warrior spirit. For much of my career the Canadian Forces was described as a peacekeeping military and our soldiers, sailors, and airmen as peacekeepers. Too often our proud military legacy as war-fighters was conveniently ignored in preference of a more benign descriptor as humanitarians and “Blue Berets.” Seemingly lost was the belief that our Canadian Forces were actually capable of combat operations.
    Afghanistan changed that perception. Everyone, from our fellow Canadians to our Allies and coalition partners to even our enemies, has been reminded of the courage and tenacity of the Canadian soldier. And no event was more seminal in passing on that message than Operation Medusa.During those two weeks in September 2006, in the hot, dusty killing fields of Panjwayi, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers, like their forefathers before them, fought desperate and savage battles to defeat a vicious and brutal enemy intent on imposing their will on