Veteran soldiers, reservists Capt. Chad Belbin and Capt. Michael Bennett, pose for a photo at CFS St. John’s. — Photo by Ashley Fitzpatrick/The Telegram

Pick a day, any day, and about 8,000 Canadian Forces soldiers will be "preparing for, engaged in or returning from an overseas mission," according to the federal government.

Now home in Newfoundland at "the base" (Canadian Forces Station St. John's) Capt. Michael Bennett and Capt. Chad Belbin have counted themselves among those numbers.

Bennett has served 23 years and 10 months with the Forces, while Belbin has 12 years in. Both men are reservists.

This week, the two veteran soldiers sat down in the office of the Commanding Officer of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment - at a table with a hand-carved chess set, near a wall-mounted rug from the Sudan and beside a bookshelf holding titles like "Concepts for Future Army Capabilities" - to speak with The Telegram about being a part of today's Canadian Forces and serving overseas.

Blue hats and green hats

As reservists, Bennett and Belbin volunteer to go.

"We do training on a part-time basis, along with our civilian careers, and then we go away and train from anywhere from six to nine months with the unit and get up to the level they want. Then we deploy overseas, filling in for the role or job (the regular forces) didn't have someone to do," Belbin said.

Bennett has served on three overseas missions since 1991. The first was with the 2nd Royal Canadian Regiment in Cyprus. The ongoing mission is officially known as Operation Snowgoose and is Canada's contribution to the United Nations Force there.

"That was a straightforward 'blue-hat' peacekeeping mission. I was part of what was called force reserve and we were the mobile armed force that could move quickly to any part of the green line - separating the Turks (Turkish Cypriot Forces) and the Greeks (Greek Cypriot Forces)."

The time on the island, monitoring the long-standing dispute between communities - it has involved the United Nations since 1964 - went relatively smoothly for Bennett.

"We had some small line incidents that we deal with," he said. "Contrast that with what happened in Croatia in 1993 ..."

There, in the complicated mixture of prejudices and allegiances of the Bosnian conflict, Bennett said flatly, "we tried to get people to stop killing each other."

Peacekeeping, especially in an area with such a cultural mosaic, he said, is a difficult task at the best of times.

"It's far more complex than (saying) if we send guys with blue hats, it will be all wonderful and peaceful," said Bennett. "The thing that protects you when you have a blue hat on is the fact that the weight of world opinion is on my side when that blue hat's on.

"When they don't care about that, when you're dealing with criminal elements or your dealing with organizations that aren't under a nation state, or you've got failed states like in Somalia and parts of Sudan, the blue hats aren't going to be effective." That's when blue hats are exchanged for green ones.

"If you try to put blue hat guys in Afghanistan, they're not going to be effective because there's nobody on the other side with whom you can make that peace treaty."

Afghanistan deployment

Bennett and Belbin have both served in green-hat Afghanistan in Canadian Forces Operation Athena. Belbin worked in "higher-level planning" and Bennett in reconstruction and development.

Before spending any time in Afghanistan, or any other mission, they said, soldiers today must first complete specific conflict resolution training, cultural training and basic language training.

Learning cultural nuances, symbols and slang are particularly important tasks, they said.

"You have to know how to talk. You have to know with whom to shake hands. You have to know what they mean when they give you a thumbs-up," said Belbin.

And what does a thumbs-up in Afghanistan mean?

"Effectively, it's an up yours ... but again, that all depends on where you are, which part of the country you're in," Bennett said.

"You have to learn to respect other cultures and their beliefs. If you go over and stop something (improperly) you've just offended them and you have whoever's around there looking at you and saying you're the bad guy," Belbin added.

While trying not to have the general public pegging you as the bad guy, you must also contribute to the larger mission, they agreed.

And what is that mission?

"(The people of Afghanistan) are trying to establish a government that gives rights to their people from their point of view, their culture, and we've been asked to come over and help them facilitate that," Belbin said.

"We're not there to 'kill the enemy.' We're there to help the government be able to take care of themselves."

Reconstruction and development in Southern Afghanistan

"We need to be there long enough for people to choose to go with the government as opposed to the Taliban," Bennett said. "The government of Afghanistan is brand new. They're still finding their way. They're still figuring things out."

The government is working to create new political, military and legal structures covering areas such as trade and development.

They are doing this while facing a 28 per cent literacy rate (according to UNESCO statistics from 2000-2007).

Bennett witnessed their challenges, working with groups across Southern Afghanistan, developing agriculture and the rural economy.

"That's a wonderful spot for growing food. That used to be the bread-basket of central Asia, Southern Afghanistan. After the Soviet invasion, all of that infrastructure was effectively shattered. All of the educated people (in industry-specific specialties) left. So you were left with this fragmented economy that became dependent, if you will, upon Pakistan and Iran."

For example, Bennett said, take the staple of flour.

"You grow wheat in Afghanistan, it gets turned into flour in Pakistan to be sold back into Afghanistan. And then you get a really bad price for your wheat and you pay too much for your flour."

Manufacturing plants, processing plants and qualified operational staff are needed, he noted, but first you need proper electricity run to those plants, and then "it's the give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. Only they have one about bread and bakeries."

"Yes, it's bad that we lose people to (the counter-insurgency) and it's bad that people die from it," Bennett said, "but it doesn't stop you from doing all of these other (development) things."

Both men feel important, stabilizing advances have been made in all sectors.

Death and Remembrance

While Belbin and Bennett worked with locals and developed projects, bombs exploded and people, including some of their fellow soldiers, died.

"We have to go in with the worst-case scenario in mind. We have to be ready for that," said Belbin, who said he worked 17-hour days while in Afghanistan.

"It's different when you're back here. It affects you more back here because you're not used to it. We're not used to having people killed all the time. You go over there and it's not unusual to have a few hundred people in a day killed (between soldiers and civilians). To them, that's life," he said.

"You get in and you do the job," Bennett added. "Everybody deals with that stuff in our business. People get killed in our line of work. We accept that. We're volunteers, we're not forced into the CF (Canadian Forces). Especially as a reserve soldier going overseas, you're choosing to go into a theatre, you're choosing to go on a combat mission."

The issue of post-traumatic stress disorder does come up, however.

"It depends on the person. Someone might be overseas, come back and years down the road, all of a sudden collapse. Did they actually see anything? Watch someone die or anything? They might not have," said Belbin. "But, they're around it and they're listening to it, then it might affect them. Someone else might be there when someone is killed, or be shot at and shoot back, and be totally fine. Every person is different."

Belbin was asked about his own health.

"I'm fine. But give me a year and I might be in hospital having a nervous breakdown ... you don't know."

Both men said Remembrance Day events always have an effect on them.

Bennett recalled a Remembrance Day ceremony in Afghanistan.

"After the Remembrance ceremonies you remove your poppy and I wanted to place this on my buddy's plaque on (the base remembrance) monument and that's ... that was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do," Bennett said.

"It is deeply moving. We're not unemotional about all that stuff, but we take it in stride and we deal with it. It's difficult and challenging, but you deal with it and you keep going."

afitzpatrick@thetelegram.com