Our Dry Cellar: Lessons in Military Logistics from the Afghan War

Timeless insights into military logistics sprang out of the hardship and sacrifices of Canadians who fought in Afghanistan.

Good battlefield logistics have always been more about people than things. Military logistics in the Canadian Armed Forces have long suffered in a dry cellar, as the under-appreciated bottom heap of the institution. Yet Canadian logistic soldiers were called upon mightily in the summer of 2006 to sustain an infantry battle group in one of the world’s harshest theatres. Afghanistan burned as a pyre of quiet desperation for the soldiers of the Canadian logistics battalion, the National Support Element, sustaining Task Force Orion in combat through endless days and over-extended lines of communication. This crucible yielded war fighting lessons that have never been shared and are offered here for the first time.

Retired Colonel John Conrad, who served in the Canadian Army during the Afghan War, makes a case for strengthening the logistic underpinnings of the Canadian Armed Forces while putting human faces on the service and sacrifice of the revered art of battlefield logistics.

John Conrad is a retired army colonel with thirty-three years experience in the Canadian Armed Forces, including twenty-five years as a logistics officer. He commanded the Canadian logistics battalion in Kandahar in 2006 and has been decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal. His previous book was the PTSD memoir Among the Walking Wounded. He lives in Hastings Lake, Alberta.