Kit Issue

Yesterday afternoon I received my kit issue from the RCMP International Peace Operations Branch stores.  Talk about a bunch of stuff!  The quality of the clothes and gear all looks good and the quantity certainly is generous.  We'll get a chance to test out some of the clothing over the next few weeks when we transfer to a nearby CF base for our military component of pre-deployment training.  The quartermasters were good guys, supremely organized, and good-natured.  They kit out all the members for all the UN missions including Afghanistan.  They loaded us down with gear, shook our hands, wished us luck, and off we went.

The Afghanistan mission is unique in some respects because it is a NATO mission and not a United Nations mission.  Because of this arrangement we won't be wearing the UN blue berret or the UN crests on our shirts and jackets.  Instead we have a Canadian flag and "Police" shoulder flash and a brassard (slips over the sleeve of your shirt and covers your shoulder) with the shoulder flash of our home police service.  There is a chance that some of our rotation will be assigned to the European Union Police Mission to Afghanistan (EUPOL) ( http://www.eupol-afg.eu/ ). Those members will be issued a EUPOL berret but the rest of the uniform will remain more or less the same. 

We've been advised of the postings that we've been tentatively assigned but since changes are guaranteed for many of us I'll postpone telling you my assignment until I'm actually there.  It looks good though.

Thanks for all the kind posts over the last few days.  We sure appreciate it.  If you have any questions or curiosities please post them.  I'll do my best to answer them.