Words from Afghanistan - Captain Michael Reekie MMV (ITOW)

On the Night Defence of Ma’sum Ghar, 19 August 2006.                 

Selected quotes from the book In their Own Words :

Major Mike Reekie and his LAV had been deployed by Major Michael Wright to cover the rear of 3 Platoon, Alpha Company, 1 RCR, which was holding the high ground and northern slopes of Ma’sum Ghar. Suddenly, Reekie and his crew realized that they were being attacked by infiltrating Taliban fighters coming from what they thought was the rear.


"Sergeant Holley was my 2IC and the company weapons commander. We were taking turns firing the chain gun on the LAV with the other guy up with the NVG on and firing the pintle-mounted machine gun. So that way we directed the main armament down the road engaging the targets that Corporal Chevrefils was observing. They were advancing in section strength. We would switch one-up and one-down because you can only look at the thermal site (sic) in the LAV for about half an hour before our eyes start to get a bit buggy. You need to take a break so that you don’t miss something. The two of us were working as one in the turret of the vehicle. In the back of the vehicle I had my other three soldiers – Corporal Nigel Gregg, Private Timmy Wilkins and Corporal Will Elliott. Private Wilkins had a general purpose machine gun on the left sentry hatching engaging an enemy fire base about 75 metres to our left off the road…. Corporal Gregg and Corporal Elliott were on the right side with their C7s engaging guys as they swept around the mountain and into the compounds trying to flank us on that side. So they were picking guys off on that part. Cohesion was the key. Everybody was working together…. It was a good tight team. "

(In Their Own Words: Canadian Stories of Valour and Bravery from Afghanistan, 2001-2009. Canadian Defence Academy Press, Kingston, 2013. Page 177)

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