Short Bursts:
Book Review - No Names No Pack Drill: An Oral History of Canadians at War in Afghanistan

Reviewed by H. Christian Breede, Ph.D

We all have our stories. The unremarkable conversations that became the last thing we said to a fellow soldier. The dumb luck involved in surviving a tour of duty. The randomness of violence and death. The tears, the laughter, the joy, and the fear.

We all have our stories from our time in Afghanistan.

I first heard about Steve MacBeth’s book project while he was working with our team at the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University back in 2019 and I thought it was a fascinating and unique project. I never managed to sit with him to contribute to this important work so I am coming at this piece without any stake in the project, aside from reviewing a book edited by a person whom I hold in high regard.

What MacBeth has accomplished in No Names No Pack Drill is noteworthy. The book is a unique and valuable contribution to the literature on a war that defined a generation of Canadian soldiers. No Names No Pack Drill is incredibly helpful as a tool for coming to terms with our own personal experiences with Afghanistan, and in reading it I found myself moved and heartened by the stories that echo my own experiences. From an academic perspective the book is filled with data that not only captures precious accounts of first-hand experiences there, but it also validates so much of what the CAF is trying to reinforce today. In short, this book is not just for veterans and serving members.

The book is long. As the introduction states, the book is a compilation of 150 stories – some as short as a few sentences to others that span several pages. The stories are organized loosely by topic to cover preparation, the arrival, the settling into the proverbial groove of the deployment, and then the homecoming. Each of the topics are themselves broken down into thematic chapters of varying length – from just under 15 pages to well over 75 pages. This unevenness in chapter length has the unfortunate effect of overwhelming the reader at times as the individual stories seem to blend together and at times, seems almost repetitive.

Perhaps this is by design. As so much of the literature on warfare has indicated – and as the testimonies and topic headings even in this book attest – war is a grind. Many of the stories in this book are powerful and raw. The individuals who saw fit to sit with MacBeth and share should be applauded for their candor and vulnerability. You feel like you have the privilege of being in the room with the author, listening to these stories pour out. The light editorial touch applied by MacBeth is equally commendable and does the individual stories justice; you can hear the individual story-tellers voice in each one.

While the author’s editorial choices regarding organization are sensible, additional themes cut across the chapters. Again, this is simply a testament to the richness of the data – the stories –collected here. The themes fall into two broad clusters. The first cluster relates to the experience of the veterans while the second is focused on how this book in fact contributes to the current discussions around the profession of arms and what it means to be a member of the CAF.

Within this first cluster, themes of the eagerness of validation through enemy contact, the chaos that would ensue, the role of luck, and feelings of guilt are revealed through story after story. The stories all share that the eagerness for enemy contacts faded quickly, that navigating the sensory overload and adrenalin dumps were a consistent feature of the experience, and that accepting that you could do everything right and still end up dead or wounded as well as the guilt of surviving and leaving loved ones permeate the accounts collected here by MacBeth. These stories are at times hard to read and process, but they also offer solace in the process of sharing such experiences. If they resonate with readers – especially veterans – it should give comfort in that they are not alone. I know it did for me.

The second cluster of themes offers some important insights into what it means to be a member of the profession of arms in Canada. First and foremost, the role of judgment comes up time and again in the stories presented in the book. Judgment – the ability to navigate the uncertainty of the situation and make the best choice – is central to our profession. The stories in this volume attest to that. Another theme revolved around the importance of teams as both a source of motivation as well as how integral they were to accomplishing tasks – especially under the most challenging of situations. A third theme is a consistent desire to maintain professionalism in the face of fear, anger, frustration, and sadness. Indeed, time and again, the soldiers in these pages talk about how they must maintain a professional attitude and not succumb to the temptations of retribution or revenge.

The does not shy away from recent events surrounding Afghanistan. This volume offers the best reckoning I have yet to see. Towards the end of the volume, a soldier suggests that asking if the mission was worth it misses the point. Nothing is worth the loss of a loved one. Soldiers fully appreciated – even while deployed – that the national narrative of bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan was not going to work. They just tried to make life a bit better for the people of Afghanistan while they were there because it was their job.

This raises a final question that should spur further reflection and analysis. The stories remark that this was the first time a professional force, composed of volunteers who have chosen to make a career out of soldiering, had deployed for a sustained combat mission. This created unique pressures on the mission, from deployed members needing to be rotated in and out of theatre to the demands of career courses and training upon return to Canada, to the uglier side of careerism as a factor in operational planning while deployed. Command positions while deployed were sought after and highly revered and performance had consequences for career advancement beyond Canada’s time in Afghanistan. These are all questions that need to be further unpacked from the Afghanistan experience.

No Names, No Pack Drill offers a rich foundation of information through the stories of people who lived through Canada’s time in Afghanistan. It should be read, reflected on, drawn from, and consulted by those looking to further develop the profession of arms. It is a great source for veterans seeking comfort in knowing they are not alone, as well as for any one curious about what all aspects of the mission in Afghanistan was like.

This book is gold—an absolute must-read.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

H. Christian Breede is a research analyst with Professional Concepts and Leader Development at the Canadian Defence Academy. A retired infantry officer with deployed experience in Haiti (2004) and Afghanistan (2008-09), Christian holds a PhD in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and has taught and published on topics of foreign policy, military culture, and leadership.

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This article first appeared online in the Short Bursts section of the Canadian Army Journal (January 2025).