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Canadians Help Find Stranded Choppers
Friday, February 22, 2002
(1:00 AM)
By Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press

Coyote crews praised for role in night search

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan
Canadian troops in high-tech armoured vehicles led a nighttime mission across a heavily mined desert to find and protect two U.S. helicopter crews stranded in hostile territory by a sandstorm.

The six troopers from the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) regiment of Edmonton were the mission's eyes and ears on the ground, using their night vision equipment to locate the stranded Chinook helicopters and their crews, forced down by poor visibility and dwindling fuel supplies.

Knowing there was a minefield in the area, the two Coyote vehicles scanned the terrain before carefully leading two heavily armed Humvee vehicles loaded with American troops off the paved road and across the dusty plain to the site where the choppers and their crews sat in darkness.

The 20-man force then took up positions in the area overnight, with the Canadians keeping an eye on suspected enemy movements. The site -- 35 kilometres northeast of the Kandahar air base where 4,300 coalition troops are stationed -- is an area known for hostile Taliban activities.
(More: The Toronto Star Online News Source)
2002 © Canadian Press.

Dan