Sergeant Michael Denine, 8 Platoon, Charlie Company, First Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Medal of Military Valour

On May 17, 2006, while sustaining concentrated rocket propelled grenade, machine gun and small arms fire, the main cannon and the machine gun on his light armoured vehicle malfunctioned. Under intense enemy fire, he recognized the immediate need to suppress the enemy fire and exited the air sentry hatch to man the pintlemounted machine gun. Completely exposed to enemy fire, he laid down a high volume of suppressive fire, forcing the enemy to withdraw. Sergeant Denine's valiant action ensured mission success and likely saved the lives of his crew.

A fghanistan was Sergeant Denine's third tour overseas. Though he had experienced danger in Bosnia and Kosovo, he had seen no fighting. "The stress level was there, because you're always watching out." But when they arrived in Afghanistan, it did not take long for his platoon to realize this tour would be different. "When it sunk in was the second day there. Second Battalion, one of their vehicles got lit up by a suicide bomber. The following week three guys got killed in a vehicle rollover, and it just started to snowball from there. It didn't take too long to sink in, and it usually doesn't on those type of tours."

S gt Denine's first major contact was May 17. "We were going into the Panjwayi area, there's a little town around where the White School is, in the same area. "We were going in to clear out the mouth of the town. It was wide enough to drive a LAV (Light Armoured Vehicle) through, and that's it. You wouldn't be able to dismount. "As soon as we hit the mouth of the town, we started taking small arms fire. At first it wasn't really a big deal, I'm in a 20 ton armoured car, small arms fire isn't going to have that much of an effect. "And then the fire started intensifying. It went to small arms - machine-gun - and then it went to RPGs. And whatever else they could throw at us. And it just really picked up."

S gt Denine was one of two soldiers sticking out of the air sentry hatch. He remembers at least 10 rockets just missing or actually striking the LAV. "For myself personally, I just wanted to start engaging to take care of the threat. It doesn't matter what you're in, no one likes to be in that position, where you're a stationary target. "I was in the back, Corporal Ozerkevich opened fire, started firing with his M203 (grenade launcher). I was yelling out to the crew commander, 'Let's get going! Let's get the guns up!'" The LAV is armed with a 25mm cannon and a 7.62mm machine-gun. They are the main power of a mounted section. "We were about to engage one of the guys behind a low wall, and then the turret crew called out 'Misfire!' The automatic drill is to switch to the co-ax, and they yelled 'Stoppage!'" Both guns had broken down, and only Sgt Denine and Cpl Ozerkevich, who were in the air sentry hatches, could shoot back. "Under our breath, it was, 'Great.'" Only the fire of the two exposed soldiers was keeping the enemy suppressed. "And that was it, they were working on getting the two guns up, and we were firing throughout. I know 'Oz' (Cpl Ozerkevich) went through 18 M203 (grenade launcher) rounds in about 10 minutes. That's a lot of ammunition in such short period of time. "There was a fair number of people firing. I went through about seven mags, and that's between actually engaging and suppressing. "The volume of fire just seemed like everything came at once and the car was getting peppered. I saw an RPG round skip right down the side of the car, and ground out. The engine must have died in the rocket, and it just dead-headed it behind the vehicle. I was like, 'Yeah. No.'"

S gt Denine realized that if nothing were done, the LAV would likely be destroyed, and his section could possibly be wiped out. Despite bullets and rockets flying, Sgt Denine left the safety of the hatch, and climbed up into full view. "I told Oz to hold on, I hopped out of the back there, and got on the C9 (machine-gun)." Sgt Denine put down accurate fire. He began to kill enemy soldiers, or convince them to withdraw. "The worst thing about it, was the rest of the platoon was back behind us because of the way the ground was - you were pretty much committed right off the bat." The turret jams were eventually cleared, and the crew began to fire. "I hopped down. We backed off about 100 metres, and called in for artillery. They had a 'drop short' with the round, so it landed about 70m in front of my car." Seventy metres is too close for safety. "A 155 round makes quite a bang when it hits the ground that close," Sgt Denine recalls dryly.

A fter pulling back, the battle was not over. Sgt Denine got more ammo for his platoon. The Canadians retreated to safer ground, and fired on the enemy in the town with the 25mm cannons. "We quickly got together, about five minutes, gave a quick set of frag orders. My section dismounted, and we went in and swept the town. Just for that contact, we captured, I think it was 35, we destroyed about 40 enemy. And we wounded about 40. There was a bunch caught in the compound. They didn't want to surrender, and kept fighting. There were four Apaches (attack helicopters) inbound, and they took care of those. It was a long day. It started at 10 in the morning, from the first round, and it lasted to about 6-7 o'clock. It was starting to get dark, and we got about a half-hour lull. Then it picked up again. Master Bombardier Jeff Fehr, he was gunning for Captain Goddard, he came over the air and said his 'sunray' (commander) was down. When he said that, everybody knew what it meant." Capt Nichola Goddard had been killed. "Then it started again, and picked right up there, 'til about 11 or 12 at night. They called in a B1 bomber to neutralize a compound there. He came in, all you see is the two little afterburners on the jet, and he just punched it, dropped the bomb, bright flash, a big pile of smoke came up, and he neutralized that. Once we consolidated, we went back to the White School with our prisoners and stuff, and got ready for the next day, to sweep through the next town." The Canadians had taken casualties in the engagement, but so far Sgt Denine's platoon had not.

A few weeks later, as elements of Sgt Denine's platoon made a flanking manoeuvre through a complex of grape huts, they were ambushed. Sgt Denine was slightly back, manning a LAV for fire support. "Because of the foliage, you can't see 20 feet in front of you half the time. It was just a couple of bursts of PKM (enemy light machine-gun) fire, and Cpl Ginther got shot, and Cpl 'Oz' got shot, and Sgt Mavin didn't get a scratch ... lucky man. Cpl Leonard called on the radio, and said, 'Get the LAVs up here we got wounded.'"

S gt Denine was ordered forward. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'm on my way.' Me and MCpl Smith, we pulled up pretty much alongside the grape hut, and I put about 60-70 rounds of sabot (armour piercing round) into the side of the grape hut, and about 160 HEAT." (high explosive round) "So, when they swept through it, there was nothing ... nothing left moving anyhow. We also called in a 1,000 pounder on top of it just to make sure."

W hile he was in the hatch directing fire, Sgt Denine was exposed. He remembers watching the nearby leaves waving gently in the wind. He then realized that it wasn't the wind moving the leaves ... it was the huge amount of enemy fire. Sgt Denine wears a rubber ring on his finger now. It was part of the microphone he was holding that day. An enemy bullet shattered the microphone while it was in his hand. "I wear it as a reminder ... not to forget."

W hy did he remain exposed, directing fire, when he was so nearly shot? "You got to be," is his straightforward answer. His only focus was getting the wounded out. "We only had the two casualties, and both survived ... and I'm glad they did."

D anger is thought of afterwards. "You don't think about, for me anyhow, anything that's going to happen to you. What could happen to you, or what will happen to you ... that's afterwards. You're back in the camp, you're smoking a cigarette, or you're having a coffee, and you're sitting around with the boys, and you're all cleaning weapons, and it just dawns on you ... I could have got killed there. But, you can get killed walking the street, too, you know what I mean?

F ield leadership: "So, you take it in dribs and drabs, and try to work it out in your head, and you're good to go." Relationships change under those conditions. Leadership changes. "Treat them like adults. Everybody gets treated like a big boy, let me tell you, real quick. As soon as you're carrying around live ammo, all that tin soldier crap goes out the window. And it does. It has to. "It's like I told my guys when we hit the ground there, 'You look left, you look right, that's all you got in the world.' And that is everybody ... that's your whole world right there. That's your family, your brother, your sister, whatever. "I'm your mother, I'm your father, I'm your best friend. I'm your taskmaster, enforcer, and that's what I have to be. I try to motivate my guys and keep them happy. By no means do I baby my section. Like I say, I treat them like adults. When they do good, I give them a pat on the back. When they do bad, they get the kick in the ass."

S gt Denine has great respect for the soldiers he fought with, and for the medal. "I'm very proud, quite honestly, to get it. It's not just for me, it's for everybody in the platoon, in the company. I'm just the guy that got picked for it, you know what I mean? It's a big honour." "For what I did that day, me personally, I was just doing what I had to do to get everybody the hell out of there, basically. And I'll tell you right now, that anybody in the car, or in the company, or in the platoon, they would have done the same thing. Everybody is a top-rate soldier."