Off to War by Deborah Ellis

Author:Deborah Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JNF053050
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd.
Published: 2008-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Matthew, 11

Before the invasion of Iraq, military families had lower rates of child abuse than civilian families did. But a 2007 study funded by the military and published by the American Medical Association showed that after the invasion, rates of abuse rose to become higher than in civilian families. Children were at greater risk when their military parent was overseas. The stress on the remaining parent — often a combination of financial and child-care worries, combined with exhaustion and constant anxiety about their partner’s well-being — is seen as the reason behind this rise.

Matthew and his mother live on base at CFB Petawawa. They have a good relationship, and have learned how to work through the difficulties they had while Matthew’s father was in Afghanistan, where he commanded a tank crew in Kandahar and was involved in direct combat, including the 2006 attack on a building called the White School, a Taliban headquarters, which resulted in several Canadian casualties.

I’m in grade five. My father is a sergeant. He’s been with the army for eighteen years. I have one brother. He’s six years old.

Canada has always been one of the world’s main peacekeeping countries. We’re part of the United Nations, and we’ve helped out in Israel, Croatia, Bosnia, Egypt. Lots of places. We’ve kept the peace there and prevented people from fighting. We’ve also helped to stop wars before they even start to happen. No one wants World War One or Two again.

The Taliban is causing a lot of trouble in Afghanistan. We’re trying to stop them, through being there with our tanks and through aggressive negotiations.

Dad had a rough time in Afghanistan, a very stressful time. He was right in where all the heavy fighting was. We all knew that there was a strong possibility that he could be hurt or killed. Mom in particular was really stressed. She kept hearing on the news and from her friends about all the fighting that was going on, and that made her very jumpy and upset. I guess it made me get that way, too. Dad was close to dying a few times over there. We knew he was in trouble, and Mom and I didn’t always handle it well.

She was stressed so she’d yell a lot, and I was stressed and I’d yell back, and the whole thing was really a mess. What was really going on was that we were both worried about Dad, and there was nothing we could do about that. We couldn’t go over to Afghanistan and make him come home with us. So we didn’t have any power to make our worry go away. We were scared and frustrated and angry, and we yelled at each other because we didn’t know what else to do.

It’s hard for me to talk about that time. It wasn’t good, with Dad being away and with Mom mostly really angry or really sad. I tried to keep myself away from conflict and bad emotions, but I wasn’t always successful.

One of the things Dad was involved in over in Afghanistan was the attack on the White School.

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