Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar

The definitive story of the Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, from a two-tour veteran and the bestselling author of FOB Doc.

"Read on and be proud to be Canadian." Major-General (ret'd) Lewis Mackenzie CM, O.Ont, MSC and Bar, CD

A Line in the Sand takes up where the bestselling FOB Doc left off -- this time, with a focus on the Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. What Captain Wiss saw in Afghanistan during his first tour there in 2007-08 convinced him that this conflict was a rare example of a moral war. When the Canadian Forces asked him to return to the combat area, he agreed. Once again, he kept a diary. This time, he wrote something completely different.

The conflict in Afghanistan continues to command the nation's attention. Written in an accessible and engaging style, A Line in the Sand's goal is to ensure that the efforts, sacrifices and achievements of those Canadians who served with such distinction are never forgotten. Illustrated with over 50 colour photographs, A Line in the Sand tells us about virtually every kind of soldier fighting in Afghanistan: the bomb technician, the woman who lugs heavy artillery shells, the engineer, the tank driver, the combat medic, the "grunt." We accompany Dr. Wiss as he treats the casualties of war -- Canadian, Afghan (civilian and military) and Taliban. We follow combat patrols through dangerous terrain. We learn about the Afghans, from whom we are seemingly so different yet with whom we share so much.

All profits from A Line in the Sand will be donated to the Military Families Fund, created by former chief of the defence staff General Rick Hillier to assist military families.

In 2008, Ryan Flavelle, a reservist in the Canadian Army and a student at the University of Calgary, volunteered to serve in Afghanistan. For seven months, twenty-four-year-old Flavelle, a signaller attached to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, endured the extreme heat, the long hours and the occasional absurdity of life as a Canadian soldier in this new war so far from home. Flavelle spent much of his time at a Canadian Forward Operating Base (FOB), living among his fellow soldiers and occasionally going outside the wire. For one sevenday period, Flavelle went into Taliban country, always walking in the footsteps of the man ahead of him, meeting Afghans and watching behind every mud wall for a sign of an enemy combatant. The Patrol is a gritty, boots-on-the-ground memoir of a soldier’s experience in the Canadian Forces in the 21st century. It is about why we fight, why men and women choose such a dangerous and demanding job, and what their lives are like when they find themselves back in our ordinary world.

A compelling and informed observation of the truth of Canada's war, from a dedicated Canadian doctor.

Unusually for a Canadian Forces physician, Ray Wiss spent virtually his entire tour in the combat area. He was stationed at Forward Operating Bases -- "FOBs" -- in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban and the most intense combat zone in Afghanistan.

Captain Wiss shares the "terror and boredom" of the front-line soldier's life in this candid personal diary, the first book by a Canadian veteran of the war in Afghanistan. One day he might be treating severe and bloody injuries and coping with the deaths of fellow soldiers, both Afghans and Canadians; another day he might be facing the challenge of going to the latrine in sub-zero weather. FOB Doc is heartbreaking and hilarious, often on the same page.

Royalties from FOB Doc will be donated to the Military Families Fund, which was created by former chief of the defence staff General Rick Hillier to assist military families.

Captain Robert Semrau’s military trial made international headlines—a Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan arrested for allegedly killing a grievously wounded Taliban soldier in the field. The trial and its outcome are a matter of public record. What you are about to read about the tour of duty that inspired this book is not.

What you are about to read is an emotionally draining and mind-snapping firsthand account of war on the ground in Afghanistan. It’s raw and explosive. Names have been changed to protect the brave and  not so brave alike.  

What you are about to read is an account of soldiers who live, fight and die in a moonscape of a country where it’s sometimes hard to tell your friend from your enemy. It’s about trying to hold it together when a mortar attack is ripping your friends and allies apart, and your world unravels before your eyes.

Rob Semrau wrote this book to tell us about the sheer hell that is the Stan, but also to recognize the incredible courage and compassion he witnessed in the heat of battle. The soldiers you are about to meet and the events that befall them will linger on in your mind long after you have closed these pages.

Of the 33,000 troops under NATO command in Afghanistan in October 2006, 12,000 were Americans and 2,500 were Canadians. Deployed to southern Afghanistan, the Canadian forces were charged with ending the violent insurgency in Kandahar Province. The Savage War offers a compelling look at how the war has been conducted by Canada and its allies on the ground and at the highest echelons. With unprecedented access to classified documents and the exceptional storytelling skills that have made him an award-winning reporter, Murray Brewster offers a powerful new perspective on the war.

Told in the first person by a journalist who's spent more time in the trenches than any of his peers, The Savage War provides a candid look at the war's principal figures captured in off-camera moments and the daily, gritty reality of ordinary soldiers and Afghans. And as Canada prepares to take on a new mission in Afghanistan, this is the first comprehensive account of the five most significant years of the war and the key moments in it that shaped history.

• Murray Brewster provides tough-minded analysis and a critique of bureaucracy as well as revelations about corruption—sure to incite commentary and stir controversy
• Includes eyewitness accounts, exclusive interviews, and access to classified documents
• An unflinching, unvarnished analysis of Canada's role in the war, told in first-person by a journalist who has sat in trenches with soldiers, and also in the living room of 24 Sussex Drive with the prime minister