Canadian troops launch their assault on the Whale's Back in Eastern Afghanistan 13 March 2002. Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock
On the morning of 11 September 2001, Perry Chalmers was running drills for the Royal Canadian Regiment’s specialised mortar platoon in New Brunswick when he heard the news: America was under attack. Word quickly spread across the base. “I went inside to watch the news,” the former corporal recalls. “And there was a huge feeling of – and you’re going to have to excuse me – holy shit. What the fuck just happened?”
Chalmers called his wife, who informed him that, just before 10:30am, the second of the World Trade Center towers had fallen. With that, his battalion was put on notice: dispatched to nearby airports to assist in the forced landings of commercial aircraft after the shutdown of North American airspace.
The Canadian troops went to retrieve their rucksacks and any other necessities, should they need to spring into action at a moment’s notice. As Chalmers recalls: “Things started to happen really quickly.”
