Looking Back on Op AEGIS: Major Mathew Wilson’s Story

November 28, 2022 - Defence Stories

It has been over a year since Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members left Afghanistan for the last time. This time, however, the deployed CAF members were not alone. Operation (Op) AEGIS was the CAF’s contribution to Canada’s efforts to evacuate Afghans with significant and/or enduring relationships with the Government of Canada, along with their accompanying family members.

Major Mathew Wilson (Captain at the time), was a Critical Care Nursing Officer (CCNO), who had just relocated from Canadian Forces Aeromedical Evacuation Flight (CFAE), based in Trenton, Ontario, to 1 Field Ambulance in Edmonton. It was July 28, 2021, his last day of relocation leave, when the first text came in: “Hey, where are you right now? I got an email from 1 Health Services Group to check your availability to deploy.” He had just gotten a new BBQ and was on his way home to set it up. He pulled over to the side of the road and began reading the texts that were coming in fast. It looked like he may have a week to get things ready to go. Although it was not ideal since he just moved, it was doable. A week should be enough to prepare the family for his absence. After about 4 hours of back-and-forth communication with his chain of command, Maj Wilson was told he was leaving the next day.

Along with Medical Technicians (med techs), Nursing Officers, Medical Officers, and a Medical Planner, Maj Wilson and the team began their journey into the unknown. When they departed Canada, they had a general understanding of what was going to happen, but didn’t really know what to expect. Their mission was simple: provide medical escort of Canadian Entitled Persons during their evacuation from Afghanistan.

Little did they know, it wouldn’t be so simple.

The first flights out of Afghanistan were on CC-130 Hercules aircraft, (Hercs, as they call them). They met the first group in Kuwait on the airfield at Ali Al Saleem Airbase. Evacuees would then move on to Germany, and then to Toronto. He didn’t remember exactly how many evacuees were on this first flight, but it wasn’t many. He remembered thinking, “If this is how the rest of the mission will be, then we aren’t going to get too many people out.” On this flight they had about 2/3 of the medical team in order to stage in Germany while the rest remained in Kuwait to fly into Afghanistan.

The team would have to support three legs of flights carrying evacuees: Afghanistan to Kuwait, Kuwait to Germany, and Germany to Toronto. Maj Wilson remained in Germany for much of the mission as the second-in-command (2IC) of the Health Services Support (HSS) element to Op AEGIS. His primary role was one of liaison and scheduling. “Op AEGIS was a quickly-evolving mission that did not allow for much time to prepare in advance, which was one of the biggest challenges faced from a HSS perspective.” The quickly changing information for flight dates and timings resulted in the medical team often lacking sufficient time to prepare for a flight. In cases like these, members needed to find a quick work-around to ensure mission success. This issue was overcome by liaising directly with the pilots and aircrews throughout the operation.

Maj Wilson was able to liaise with the German military to ensure medical support was available at the small Cologne airport military terminal. There, the German soldiers provided refreshments, treats and games to the Afghan evacuees – most of the time out of their own pocket. The reaction of the kids to their first sense of freedom was priceless. The laughing was a far cry from the emotions they were likely experiencing less than 24 hours ago.

At one point, HSS personnel numbers had become very thin in many locations, and because of this, Maj Wilson was brought back to Kuwait to facilitate a flight out of Afghanistan. As he was preparing for this mission, Maj Wilson heard about one of the med tech’s experiences in Afghanistan during the war. In order to help provide some closure for this med tech, he removed himself from the flight and gave his spot to them. Maj Wilson would instead take the flight from Kuwait to Germany and on to Canada.

The next morning, he recalls sitting on the ramp at Ali Al Saleem waiting for the inbound flight from Afghanistan to come in for him to continue his journey to Canada. It was already 38 degrees Celsius at eight in the morning when the flight came in. “I was looking inside the aircraft as the ramp came down, and people were shoulder-to-shoulder as far as my eye could see”. Representatives from the governments of Kuwait, United States, and Canada were present to supervise the movement of people. The process began with moving a fraction of the people onto buses heading to a base camp, with the remaining majority heading onto a CC-177 Globemaster aircraft, where Maj Wilson and a med tech would escort them to Canada.

Maj Wilson remembers: “During the loading, a frantic father brought a newborn baby girl to me, I was concerned about her health; she was born less than 48 hours ago at the Kabul Airport. The father said to me that his daughter had lost weight and was not doing well. I conducted a wellness assessment and mom was reporting that baby was eating but that she (mom) was exhausted.”

After checking the baby over and confirming that she was not experiencing the same stresses as her parents. Maj Wilson reassured the new parents that the baby girl was okay and that the best place in the world for them at that moment was on the airplane. After takeoff from Ali Al Saleem, Maj Wilson repeatedly checked in on the infant. At times holding her, looking upon her, and realizing that she would grow up in a world completely different than that of her parents. She would grow up not knowing the violence and oppression her parents knew. She would have the opportunity to get an education and be whomever and whatever she wanted to be. That, right there, was the purpose driving the CAF to help evacuate so many people.

After this phase of the Canadian mission was complete, the medical team returned home to their families. Maj Wilson was finally able to sit down with his family and explain exactly what it was he was doing and why he was doing it. Through this sit down with his family in the early days after the mission, the magnitude of what they had done was finally beginning to set in. Many people enter the healthcare field with the aim of doing good for their fellow humans. Maj Wilson has completed two other tours, Op IMPACT in Iraq and Op PRESENCE in Mali and from this experience he simply states, “Op AEGIS is singlehandedly the most rewarding experience of my CAF career. I had never made such a significant impact on the lives of so many people and for that I am grateful. I look forward to another opportunity to do so”.

Fast forward nine months to May 31, 2022: Maj Wilson was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Sault College Health Sciences 2022 convocation ceremony. During his travel from Edmonton to Sault Ste Marie, Maj Wilson’s flight was cancelled, and he was being put up in a hotel in Toronto near the airport. During the ride over, he observed something he had never seen before in that neighborhood. There were many people just sitting outside. There were children playing soccer or throwing a ball as high as they could in the air and chasing it around the hotel. Strange, he thought.

Once he was settled into his hotel, he went for a walk to the corner store, and on his way, thought he recognized the cultural specificities of the people he had been observing. He approached a couple of gentlemen sitting on the grass and asked if they spoke English and they did. He proceeded to ask where they are from, and their response instantly gave him goose bumps: They were evacuees from Afghanistan. Maj Wilson talked with them for a little bit, choking back some emotions. He was happy to see them enjoying what we take for granted every day – freedom. “This provided some closure for me, seeing the impact of what we did.”

Today Maj Wilson is the Officer Commanding Medical Company at 1 Field Ambulance. He continues to grow personally and professionally. Recognizing the primary care crisis Canada is facing, he is pursuing his Nurse Practitioner Degree from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. This is part of the Ontario Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program, which strives to ensure that primary care is available to all Ontarians. What led Maj Wilson to choose Laurentian University was the focus on rural and remote health and the opportunity to learn and provide care in some of the most underserved populations in the country.

For more information on this rewarding profession, visit the Nursing Officer recruitment page, or email CFHSAttractionCell-CelluledattractionSSFC@forces.gc.ca.