by Mike Armstrong
It's a cliché to say something is a "worst kept secret," and I always avoid clichés. But honestly, it applies to Camp Mirage.
Canada's "secret" logistics base was closed this week, after nine years of use. It was vital to Canada's mission in Afghanistan. At its peak, 30,000 people a year were moved through it. Over the course of its lifetime, 8 million pounds of cargo were transported.
Where was it? (Read with a spooky Halloween voice) Noooo one knooooows.
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For years, the government wouldn't talk about the location of Camp Mirage – even though everyone knew it was in Dubai. When the space was given to Canada, a promise was made to keep its location secret.
Well, that promise was kept right to the end.
We had two requests in with the Canadian Forces to cover the closing ceremony of Camp Mirage. I'm at Kandahar Airfield, so a flight with CF from here to Mirage would have been pretty easy to organize. Global National's Tom Popyk also had a request in to cover it, and the trip would have been even easier for him. He's already in Dubai.
Now, our requests weren't turned down – they were ignored. We were waiting for a response, when we got one we didn't expect. We were handed the official program for the "Camp Mirage Closure Ceremony," complete with the transcript of the speech given by the Theatre Support Element Commanding Officer.
We missed it.
Too bad. I would have liked to have seen it.
A last thought on the subject. Each Canadian killed in Afghanistan was returned home through Camp Mirage. Each time, there was a ramp ceremony. It was an important part of Canada's last nine years. In his closing speech, right near the end, Lt.-Col. Tom Dunne mentions that on October 22nd, Camp Mirage's "monument to the fallen" was removed. It must have been returned to Canada.
I hope to see it some day. I'm going to try to find out where it is. That can't be a secret.
Mike is Global National's Quebec correspondent, normally based in Montreal. He is reporting from Kandahar for the next few weeks.
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