Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Major Canadian Army Exercise in Texas

I doubt the troops will be blissed out; the El Paso times updates an earlier story (the tanks are new).
A Canadian brigade along with 42 tanks, armored engineering vehicles and armored personnel carriers will be traveling through Edmonton Tuesday before making their way to Fort Bliss for training.

Exercise Southern Bear, taking place at Fort Bliss in February [21st to 26th], will include two Canadian mechanized brigades.

The exercise, designed to prepare soldiers for deployment to Afghanistan in 2008, will involve roughly 3,300 soldiers, with the overwhelming majority of them based in Ontario at CFB Petawawa, according to a news release from Canada's Land Force Central Area - Dept of National Defence.

Involved in the exercise will be members of the Canadian Battle Group, Provincial Reconstruction Team, Observer Mentor Liaison Team, National Support Element and the Headquarters for Joint Task Force Afghanistan Rotation 5.

2 Comments:

Blogger Acad Ronin said...

I hope the troops get some time off to visit Juarez. When I was at Bliss for Vietnamese Language School, which should give you a sense of how long ago that was, the best steaks were to be had south of the border, and the best Tex-Mex food was north of the border. There is also great Mexican beer (Negra Modelo or Dos Equis are my favorites) to be had on either side, to say nothing of tequila.

4:11 p.m., January 15, 2008  
Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

acad ronin,

As long as the troops don't go to a Taco Bell and think they're eating real Mexican food! :-)

My Texas time was limited to USAF basic training at Lackland AFB, at San Antonio, central TX. We were allowed one day off in that time to go into town.

San Antonio has a lovely river front, actually a canal front, that goes through the downtown. I and a few friends ended up there. after the obligatory visit to the Alamo. (Much smaller than in the John Wayne movie, BTW.)

There are boat rides, nice shops of all kinds AND restaurants at the canal. We found a good restaurant and I had the one pound T-bone steak dinner. With a couple of beers to wash it down, of course. :-)

11:46 p.m., January 15, 2008  

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