P.A. veterans share stories of time in Afghanistan ahead of Remembrance Day

Ramsay Bellisle enlisted in 1993, continuing a tradition in his family. His parents were members of the army, while both of his grandfathers fought in the Second World War.

“I’m not sure why I’ve always been drawn to the military, whether it be movies, books,” he said.

Bellisle’s career included two tours, one to Bosnia in 1997 and one to Afghanistan in 2009.

While he remembers both deployments, it was the one to Afghanistan that really sticks out.

The day he was leaving, he found out that his friend Lieutenant Justin Boyes had died overseas. He explained that his family also knew Justin which made it even harder for him to process.

“I’m about to get on the bus to Afghanistan and I can’t say everything is going to be okay. How do I explain to my (kids).”

While not being able to attend Justin’s ramp ceremony, a memorial service for a fallen soldier held at the airport prior to the plane departing, Bellisle’s first day in Afghanistan did include another ceremony for an engineer who had passed away.

His platoon was in charge of the camp’s defense. Because of this and the fact that he was there during the winter, he wasn’t a part of any firefights.

“If we fired any rounds in our company it was because of warning shots,” Bellisle said.

This didn’t mean he was never in danger. The biggest issue for his platoon was improvised explosive devices (IED).

“Every time we went into District 9, within 24 hours there would be an IED found along the route or just off the route,” he said. “We knew every time we went out there that the Taliban or whoever were running parallels to our patrols, if I turned left instead of going right, I would have gone into a mine or IED.”

Bellisle has been helping set up Prince Albert’s Remembrance Day ceremony. He was also the first person in the community to get a poppy, kickstarting the Legion’s annual poppy campaign.

He explained that he uses the roughly two weeks during the campaign to remember all those who served as it’d be too hard to try and do so all year long. This especially became the case in 2006 when he started to personally know other service members who had died.

“I actually know guys, it added to it,” he said.

Donovan Kultgen. (Submitted Photo)

Donovan Kultgen enlisted in 1998. What started out as a way to build confidence turned into a career.

“I wanted to do boot camp… prove that I could do it and then I planned on carrying on with life and it didn’t work out that way. I enjoyed the military, I enjoyed the brotherhood.”

Just like Bellisle, Kultgen served in Afghanistan. The two actually lived at the same site for several months.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but he and I were basically a couple hundred metres away from each other for the next five months.”

His deployment is something he won’t soon forget. It turned out to be a day of traveling which included multiple stops in Canada before flying to Germany, Cyprus, Dubai, and finally Afghanistan.

The flight into Afghanistan was what really hammered the point that he was going into a warzone.

“We flew in, it was dead of night, and they do this tactically so there’s no lights on the plane. It’s pitch black,” Kultgen said. “You come in pretty high and when you get close to the airfield they drop you. Like it’s a rush.”

Kultgen was first tasked with making sure all the armored vehicles and LAVs were properly equipped, before focusing on making sure their tanks had all the parts they needed.

During his time in Afghanistan, he noted he never felt stressed. His platoon was always cracking jokes and really became a family.

While not being involved in a firefight, there were two occasions when he could have been severally hurt or worse.

The first was a mortar blowing up around 20 metres away. Thankfully, there was a wall between them, so he just experienced the sonic boom of the blast.

The second incident, which was almost fatal, involved a scorpion.

“I went to pick up a pallet and it ran right past my hand. I killed it and I took it to the medics, and they said, ‘did it sting you’ and they started freaking out and I said ‘no’, and they said ‘good, because we couldn’t get you to the hospital quick enough.’”

The years after his tour ended up being much harder for Kultgen. This is when he started to suffer from severe anxiety.

“Just because I lost that safety net and while the threat wasn’t there, my body wanted that safety net,” he said. “I was pretty messed up for a couple of years afterwards, just trying to figure out what to do with my life and how to handle things.”

Kultgen is now in a much better situation, working in Prince Albert, while living in Shellbrook.

As for Remembrance Day, he explained it’s an important day for him to remember and honour all those who served before, during, and after his time.

“I remember the people we lost, there are some faces (in the wall of memories) there that were friends at one point in time and there were buddies who passed away afterwards due to their own issues.”

Remembrance Day

An outdoor ceremony is being planned for Remembrance Day in Prince Albert where people can honour all veterans including Bellisle and Kultgen.

The ceremony will begin at 10:55 a.m. on Nov. 11 at Memorial Square with the marching in of the colours followed by the last post and a minute of silence. They will then read the honour roll followed by the Act of Remembrance. The ceremony will end with the closing prayer and the marching off of the colours.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Jaryn Vecchio

P.A. veterans share stories of time in Afghanistan ahead of Remembrance Day

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