Duane Hicks
An Canadian Armed Forces reservist for more than five years, Fort Frances native Lt. Andrew Curr is heading to Afghanistan this week for a nine-month tour as a duty officer.
Curr, 23, has been studying history at the University of Regina while serving as a reservist with the 10th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery, a unit of 38th Canadian Brigade Group, Land Forces Western Area.
As a reservist, Curr had been working nearly every weekend—and sometimes several days a week. He applied for the position of a duty officer with the Canadian Forces headquarters in Afghanistan last year, and found out in June he had been accepted.
“You’ve done five years of training, and you’d like to actually contribute,” Curr said when explaining why he applied for the position. “There’s been a lot of good things that have been happening in Afghanistan, although they haven’t necessarily been the most
widely reported.
“I do hear quite a bit of good things from people who have been over before,” he noted. “It’s a good cause. I’d like to go over there, help out, and do my part for Canada.”
He began intensive training for the duty officer position in early August, which was quite different from his role in the reserves as an artillery officer.
“The pace is really heightened. There’s a lot to do in a short amount of time, and it is really an encompassing headquarters—army, navy, air force combined,” he said. “There’s a lot of things to remember.
“It’s been incredible, the pace and the amount of learning and catch-up you have to play,” he admitted.
“This job is the same for reg force officers and reserve force officers.”
Curr said his job as a duty officer will not be in the field per se, but based out of the Canadian Armed Forces headquarters at Regional Command South. In simplest terms, he’ll be responsible for managing information pertinent to Canadian Forces activity there.
“If anything happens in Afghanistan, I need to know what’s going on,” he stressed. “Anytime, someone could walk in and ask, ‘What’s happening? What’s going on?’
“If someone is out here, I need to know that, or if someone is out there, I need to know what that’s going to do for everything.
“It’s tracking the battle, really,” added Curr, explaining his job involves communicating between what’s happening in the field to those in command at headquarters, and back again.
“I assist by providing more information to everyone who needs to know to make those decisions.”
The son of Jim and Larisa of Fort Frances, Curr said his family has been supportive of his decision to go to Afghanistan.
“Of course, my mom’s worried. Why would she not be? I can see that,” he reasoned. “But they are very supportive. My parents are really good. My sister [Elissa] is really good—she’s in Regina, too, like a lot of my family.
“And my girlfriend [Christina Badgley] is really supportive of me—she’s in the navy so that helps out a lot.”
Curr said he’s also encouraged by the fact he’s met other people from Fort Frances and Rainy River District who have gone to Afghanistan. On this particular tour, he will be shipping out with former Devlin resident Sgt. Brad Larocque of 1 RCHA, the senior unit of the regular component of the Canadian Forces.
Curr has had to take time off school for his tour of duty. He intends to return to school after his tour is finished since he still has to complete seven courses to get his history degree.
Curr hasn’t decided whether he’ll pursue a full-time career in the Canadian Forces, but encouraged others to consider enlisting in the reserves or regular forces.
“It’s a real pleasure to do it. The Forces usually gets not the best rap in the world, but it’s been very good to me,” he stressed. “I go to university and they pay for part of it every year. Plus, it’s a part-time job you can turn into a full-time job at any time.
“It’s been really, really good to me,” he enthused. “I enjoy it and there’s a lot of people who do.
“It’s a really good experience—I like to do it, and helping out your country has always been a big thing to me,” he said, adding it also is a means to travel the world and “see everything you can.”
