New correspondent from the box...

Thursday March 1, 2007 I am not making this up. Today I met Captain Canada. Clearly this needs some explanation. The Kandahar Air Field is swimming in nationalities: Canadians, Brits, Dutch, Romanians, Jordanians, Afghans, Australians, and especially Americans. Our southern cousins are everywhere here, which is not surprising because they are by far the largest contingent on Base. They are also everyone's best friend in need. Any ground unit here knows that if you run into a spot of something, one call to the American air force can usually get you out of it. They are also extremely friendly. Although this is a multinational mission, every country maintains, and proudly so, its own distinct uniforms, insignias, and recreational compounds. The Dutch, for instance, have their own little Amsterdam style café, without of course anything you would normally find in an Amsterdam Café, except coffee. But the mess tents are a multinational free-for-all. It was there that I spotted him. At the next table, a person wearing a distinctly American uniform, with the words U.S. Air Force over the left pocket of his shirt, and the word Canada over the right pocket. I guess my curiosity showed. "Canadian eh?" he said in a drawl that came straight from south of the Mason Dixon line. "Canadians always stare". Well, yeah! Any uniform that has both U.S. Air Force and Canada on it is a bit unusual, for either Canadians or Americans. It turns out that it was more unusual than I imagined. He introduced himself. "Hi. Captain Rick Canada" (First reaction: get out of here! Second reaction: stifle growing urge to guffaw.) So I had to say something I never thought I'd ever get to say; "Nice to meet you ... Captain Canada". From his expression, he's gone through this routine a few times before. But he was extremely indulgent, patient, and pleasant. He explained that the origin of his name is Spanish (which lends credence to one of the stories of how we got that name for our country -- a Spanish explorer took one look at it and declared "Ca Nada", which loosely translated means "there's nothing here"). But when I got more comfortable with his name, Captain Canada and I talked. He was an extremely amiable man and he opened up about something else. He's been in Afghanistan for six months now, and it's the first time he's ever worked with Canadian soldiers. "We really like working with your guys." And in that wonderfully direct and sincere way Americans speak he added: "I mean it. They're great. Best around." Who's to disagree with Captain Canada? Not me.