frankhudec.ca
Creative photography ..... Always!

OPERATION ATHENA GALLERY

 

Canadian LAV III (light armoured vehicles) at sunrise at Camp Julien, Kabul, Afghanistan. Most of the 1,900 soldiers deployed on this second six-month rotation of Canadian troops come from the Land Force Quebec Area. <p><p> Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera A Canadian soldier with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), talks with soldiers from the Afghan National Army (ANA), while an ANA soldier with a bayonet-mounted AK47 looks on, during a dismounted patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan. <p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Sadruddin, 19, a Kabul city policeman (L), and Canadian soldiers, Cpl Sebastien Cloutier (C), and Para Ismael Oussman(R), with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), conduct a joint dismounted patrol in the Afghan capital. <p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Afghan boys ask for food from Canadian soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), while they take a break in their LAV III infantry fighting vehicle outside the village of Namuiaz near Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Afghan children walk alongside MCpl Alain Hebert, a Canadian soldier with the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), during an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Afghan boys watch Canadian soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), conduct a patrol in LAV III infantry fighting vehicles in the mountains near Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera MCpl Alain Hebert, a Canadian soldier with the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), hands out pens to Afghan children during an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence patrol in the village of Spin Kalay, near Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Zrfanullah, 11, flies a Canadian-flag-patterned kite, while a soldier from the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp) looks on from his LAV III infantry fighting vehicle near the village of Namuiaz outside Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Cpl Yannick Piche, a Canadian soldier with the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), wears the new CADPAT (AR), (Canadian Disruptive Pattern Arid Region), uniform prior to heading out in an Iltis jeep for a patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Colonel Alain Tremblay, Commanding Officer of the National Command Element (NCE), looks out over Kabul from TV Hill, an observation post overlooking the Afghan capital.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Cpl Debbie Stockbrugger, a Supply Technician with the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group (3 R22ndR Bn Gp) listens to a speech by R22ndR Colonel Commandant, Major General (retired) Terry Liston, during a parade in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Soldiers from the Kabul Multinational Brigade (KMNB) of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), man an observation post under a full moon in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Adeeb, 12, holds his little brother Ilias, 2, while he talks to Pte Vincent Audet, a Canadian soldier from the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment Battalion Group <br> (3 R22ndR Bn Gp), during a foot patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera MCpl Martin Croteau, a Canadian soldier with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), stops to talk to locals during a joint dismounted patrol with AK47-armed Kabul city police (foreground), in the Afghan capital.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Afghan children look on during a presence patrol by Canadian soldiers with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in the village of Spin Kalay, near Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Canadian Military Policeman, Cpl Andre Girard, guards the impact area from a rocket that was fired into the Kabul Multinational Brigade (KMNB) Camp Warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Lead singer Sgt Fred Caron, MBdr Yann Carpantier (drums), Cpl Martin Pelletier (guitar), and Pte Benoit Charbonneau (keyboards), perform at Camp Julien in front of the ruins of the King's Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.<p><p>Credit: Sgt Frank Hudec/Canadian Forces Combat Camera

Operation ATHENA

Operation ATHENA was Canada’s contribution of peace-support and combat forces to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from 17 July 2003 to 1 December 2011.

Operation ATHENA had two phases. In Phase I, it was essentially a peace-support mission in Kabul, where ISAF was concerned with ensuring security while the nascent Afghan government developed its constitution and held its first elections. In Phase II, Operation ATHENA moved to Kandahar Province to become the Canadian Forces’ longest-running combat mission.