BRIGITTE TRAU
Administrative Assistant Brigitte Trau approached supporting the DCC
office at Kandahar Airfield as an opportunity to work side-by-side with
DND, to serve her country, and to help the women of Afghanistan.
Her deployment, between May and November 2009, proved to be all
three. As the Administrative Support Officer, she handled both an
administration and a contracting support role; but as a volunteer, she
helped support a sewing project for Afghan widows who sold garments
to provide for their families. “To be a part of that as well, to support the
women, was very important to me,” she says. When it came to working
seven days a week, Trau says it helped to have a routine. “The most
special part of that was working as a team. Every Sunday we’d go out
and call it a family dinner — we’d go to one of the messes as a group.
We’d often go for lunch together, too . . . that really helped build the
team and helped us support each other when that was needed.”
SHAWN BINDON
In addition to serving in Afghanistan, Manager of Major Programs
Shawn Bindon regularly travelled to Afghanistan for two to three
weeks at a time for DCC, to support employees on the ground and
to better understand and help resolve issues. “Our mandate under the
Defence Production Act is to deliver defence projects and there’s no
geographic limitation on that,” says Bindon, who is a Colonel in the
Reserve Force. “The biggest learning for us was how you deliver on
this mandate in a high-paced environment like Afghanistan where
the impact of failing to deliver in a very timely manner, or to use the
right people, can have significant operational impacts on the Canadian
troops and civilians that are working over there.” With DCC involved
in the awarding of hundreds of contracts — from supplying electrical
components to managing helicopter ramp construction — Bindon says
he was consistently impressed with the ability of DCC employees to
deliver projects under trying conditions, thinking on their feet, while
still employing Canadian best practices and principles. “This is the
ultimate delivery of defence projects . . . (you) truly see the impact of
your ability to deliver.”
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NATIONAL DAY OF HONOUR — MAY 9, 2014