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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When Master Warrant Officer Claude Lafrance stepped off the plane after landing in Iraq in 1991 he didn't know what to expect from his first deployment.

Master Warrant Officer Claude Lafrance, an Afghan vet, calls on Yellowknifers to "simply appreciate what soldiers, sailors, air men and air women, have done in the past and thank them and appreciate what they have done – remembrance is that. It's people who have paid the ultimate price for freedom, and we need to take this time to thank them, to remember them and their families." - Svjetlana Mlinarevic/NNSL photo

"To me it was a bit nerve-racking. We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know," he said, recalling the First Gulf War that involved a coalition of 34 countries, including Canada, formed to repel an invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

"I was in Germany, we were training for a Cold War scenario and all of the sudden, The (Berlin) Wall comes down. You think life is going to change rather drastically and things are going to improve and the next thing you know (you're involved) in the first war that Canada had participated in, in years."

Although his training kicked in, Lafrance's time operating fuel tankers for CF-18 Hornet jet fighters was not without times of unease.

"Absolutely (I was scared)," said the Yellowknife resident of 15 years, currently a reservist working as a contractor with Joint Task Force North.

"There was one night a flare was fired in the local city. I wasn't sure what it was but it was there to alert people that there was an incoming scud missile - a pending missile attack. It was not that it was likely to hit Doha, Qatar (a city on the Arabian peninsula), because we were far away, but they had to alert the people. It was a long night and we're wearing what is referred to as Poopie Suits. They're decontamination suits that we wear for nuclear and biological warfare. We were wearing that and it was a long day and we were tired and I guess I was nodding off and I saw this flare and I thought, 'Geez!' here I am sitting in this big, big old re-fueling tanker and I'm thinking, 'My God. Maybe (the missile) is coming our way,' and (the flare) went out and we realized what it was (OK). It was an eye-opener for me."

Lafrance, 49, joined the Canadian Forces in 1980 and is no stranger to the military. His brother is a military police officer and he had two uncles in the armed forces, one of whom was a prisoner-of-war in Hong Kong during the Second World War.

"My mother was a nurse in the military, my father was a medic and it was a normal evolution. As a kid in Montreal it was all I wanted to do, to join the Canadian Forces. To be part of the military. It's funny going to school, my teachers wanted me to focus on chemistry and stuff. I was, 'It's okay. I'm going to the military so don't worry about that stuff,'" said Lafrance, who spent 16 years of his youth in cadets.

After the Gulf War, Lafrance was deployed to Rwanda in 1995 and then to Afghanistan in 2007 as a sergeant major.

"I had soldiers under me and my responsibility was to insure that I was a disciplinarian. I also had to oversee their welfare and keep an eye on them ... It's very challenging to be in that position. The drivers that operated in Afghanistan always had to go on the same routes all the time to replenish the supplies up at the operating bases. It wasn't unusual to be ambushed. It wasn't unusual to be exposed to improvised explosive devices (IED).

"It was very stressful for me. You have troops that come back, they're tired and they had a good experience. They went too and from without incident and if they did (encounter trouble), it was tough to keep them motivated. I had to tell them, 'Good. You came back. Everyone did good. You're going on the road tomorrow.' It was tough to motivate them and keep the pace going for six months. It was tough on them, it was tough on me."

Lafrance shared a story of a soldier he knew who killed by an IED while protecting a convoy in an armoured vehicle.

"I think there is a point in time where each solider goes through, or is exposed to incidents or uncertainties for what lies ahead. It makes them nervous. Everybody wants to live, no one wants to go into harm's way.

"No one wants to get exposed to danger. No one wants to die. It's always in the back of your mind. You do sometimes think about that," he said.

"War is dangerous. Period."

While Lafrance believes that war is "part of the realities of society today" and that it has a purpose when it's used to ensure freedom is protected, he would like people to take pause during Remembrance Day.

"Simply appreciate what soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen, have done in the past and thank them and appreciate what they have done - remembrance is that. It's people who have paid the ultimate price for freedom, and we need to take this time to thank them, to remember them and their families."

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