There are 2500 Canadian troops currently serving in Afghanistan. Thirty-six other nations have a presence there as well, as part of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Each one of the soldiers there leaves someone at home: parents, siblings, spouses, children. These families are part of the military effort, integral to the success of the mission. For many soldiers, their families are why they take on such a difficult and dangerous job.
Now, a new documentary, Homefront, takes a close look at the lives of five soldiers and their families during a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan. The documentary's genesis came from producer Jody Polowick's closeness to the situation: Her husband was among those members of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry headed to Afghanistan in January 2006.
For some couples, such as newlyweds Amanda Griffin-McEachern and Corporal Troy McEachern, Afghanistan is the first time that the reality of deployment intrudes in family life. For others, like Zoë Cooper and Major Tod Strickland, it's a familiar situation. Says Cooper: "It's funny but I don't mind when he goes away. It gives us breathing room. It gives us a chance to find out who we are when the other person isn't around. And I think that's healthy. It's not quite so much fun when he's away doing something dangerous but it's part of what makes our marriage interesting."
There is no escaping the danger of Afghanistan, where, as Captain Marilynn Chenette estimates, by the three-month mark of the mission "out of all of the med techs in the company only one so far hasn't been hit by either an IED or been in troops in contact or been in some sort of incident. And it's a company of 60."
The Chenettes are one of the most interesting families in Homefront. While his wife is in Afghanistan, Derek Chenette stays home with their two-year-old son Tyler. It's not the gender reversal that is interesting, though; it's the fact that Derek Chenette is himself an operations officer in the military. Both the Chenettes are on 20-year contracts with about eight years left
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