Lighting up Kandahar Airfield

By Master Warrant Officer Rock Boucher

In October 2011, the Mission Transition Task Force (MTTF) fielded a team of specialist technicians to service the airfield lights on the civilian side of Kandahar International Airport. Mounted on poles in banks soaring to 75 feet, the lights help ensure safe landings for aircraft and their crews and passengers. None had seen any maintenance in more than a year.

The Commander of Kandahar Airfield — COMKAF, the NATO general officer responsible for both the civilian and military sides of the aerodrome — identified the reliability of the airfield lights as a critical issue. The staff at COMKAF Headquarters were planning for the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, when the volume of civilian air travel staging through Kandahar International Airport always increases sharply. Most Mecca-bound flights are night arrivals.

A religious duty for all Muslims who are physically and financially capable of travelling to Mecca, the Hajj is the largest pilgrimage in the world, attracting millions of people. It takes place between the eighth and the twelfth day of the last month of the lunar Islamic calendar. In 2011, the dates are 4–9 November.

The airfield lighting task began when the staff at COMKAF Headquarters approached the MTTF Signals Squadron with a request to find out whether our construction truck — the "bucket truck" — would reach to the top of the banks of lights. The truck could raise the bucket only 60 feet.

I got involved when COMKAF Headquarters asked me to take over the project and make it work. It was a very good cause, so the project just had to work. I hand-picked an electrician and two linemen for a job that would mean working long hours.

The electrician was Master Corporal Kevin Conroy of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, one of only two electrical distribution technicians deployed with the MTTF Engineer Regiment. The linemen — MCpl Darcy George and Corporal Jesse Byrne — came from the MTTF Signals Squadron. MCpl George, a Reservist from 748 Communications Squadron in Nanaimo, B.C., operated the mobile platform on the scissor lift, while Cpl Byrne, a Reservist from 723 Communications Squadron in Halifax, N.S., functioned as ground guide and safety advisor.

We began by preparing the site and our tools. After some searching, MTTF Signals Squadron discovered that the American defence contractor KBR Inc. had a scissor-lift capable of raising a work platform to 120 feet. We asked to borrow the lift and they were happy to lend it — but the lift was on the wrong side of the runway, and it moves at an outstanding 0.8 kilometres per hour. The trip across KAF took four hours, and we did it overnight.

With all the equipment, tools and parts in place, work began at 7:30 a.m. with testing and trouble-shooting, and only eight and a half hours later we had all the lights on. Together, MCpl Conroy, MCpl George and Cpl Byrne repaired 12 lights perched atop three lamp poles on the civilian side of the airfield. The job included changing fuses, sockets, ballasts and 1,500-watt bulbs, and some wiring. Some of the parts — especially light housings and ballasts — had to be manufactured or modified on the spot.

The long hours were worth it just to see the smile on the face of an Afghan airfield worker when we turned the power on to check our work. Everyone appreciates the danger of working in the dark, so it was a priceless moment.

Afghans understand and are truly grateful for Canadians’ efforts in Afghanistan. As members of the MTTF, we want to ensure that we leave Canada's legacy intact when we depart Kandahar in December.

MWO Rock Boucher is deployed at Kandahar Airfield as the Line Construction Superintendent with the MTTF Headquarters and Signals Squadron.