IED training for Army in Texas
Once again, thank goodness for the El Paso Times (the troops are for Task Force 3-08, to arrive in Afstan this September):
Unit drills for roadside hazards of Afghanistan
Canadians train in desert
McGREGOR RANGE, N.M. -- A mound of sand the size of a small loaf of bread blended into a McGregor Range road on Friday, looking to the untrained eye like every other wave and ridge along the well-trodden path.
As about 20 soldiers from the Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, marched by, boots landed on one side and then the other until one hit directly on it.
A loud bang came from the side of the road and a starburst of sparks shot into the sky.
In Afghanistan, where the soldiers are headed in September, there would have been casualties, said Sgt. Juan Santana, an instructor with the 5th Armored Brigade, 1st Army Division West, which runs the range's training operations. The simulated roadside bomb was what the Army calls a "victim-operated improvised explosive device."
About 3,000 Canadian soldiers with the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group traveled to Fort Bliss and began a month-long training routine on Thursday. The Canadians transported about 500 pieces of equipment, including tanks and light armored vehicles, or LAVs, the rough equivalent of a U.S. Stryker vehicle and the Canadian Army's workhorse.
About 2,500 of those soldiers will deploy to Kandahar, where they will form small teams to embed with and train Afghanistan security forces. "IEDs are the biggest problem we have in Afghanistan," said Lt. Andrew Hennessy, the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group spokesman...
Back home at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, in Ontario, Friday's temperature was minus-40 degrees. The base normally is blanketed by 3 or 4 feet of snow at this time of year, Hennessy said, and is in a heavily forested area.
"That's why we come down here," he said. "We can get the big pieces moving around."
Pvt. Mike Flood, a light armored vehicle driver, added another reason -- learning to drive in the sand. "It's a lot different," he said. "I normally have it in four-wheel drive, but to get through the deep sand, I had to put it in eight-wheel drive."..
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 12:16 p.m.
2 Comments:
//rant
Good on TF3-08 for getting down to the States for some actually useful training. It's unfortunate that TF1-08 (including yours truly) got the shaft, heading to Wainwright to patrol sea containers and reacting to safety staff throwing smoke grenades to simulate, and I use that word as loosely as possible, IEDs.
Sure. we have a multi-million dollar facility out in Wainwright, 90% of which either doesn't work or, when it does, DOES NOTHING TO TRAIN THE GUYS ON THE GROUND! We (2PPCLI) were out in Wainwright for 2 months, and the only training that had any benefit was completed in the first 2 weeks. I understand that the other 6 weeks were to train the higher ups, but please, for the love of Pete, don't leave the shooters high and dry. The rest of the exercise we discovered new and interesting ways to sleep in a LAV. The combat hammock is my favorite.
It doesn't help that the staff continually change between in and out of play. I don't know about other people, but when a clearance patrol is told that they have to come back later to "clear" the area, as the IEDs haven't been planted yet, that kinda ticks me off. We found you and caught you BEFORE you managed to set your stuff up, don't penalize us for that.
If you want us to learn to survive, send us where we can (Texas), or figure out how to do it here, EFFECTIVELY.
rant//
For the guys back at Petawawa, enjoying the 3-4 ft of snow and -40 temp...here's today's El Paso forecast(Fahrenheit):
"Weather to be sunny today
Times staff report
Article Launched: 02/17/2008
Today will be sunny with a high in the lower 60s and northwest winds at 10 to 15 mph, according to a forecast by the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa.
Tonight will be clear with a low in the lower 30s and northwest winds at 10 to 15 mph."
***
That's a bit on the cool side at night but very pleasant daytime weather. I was stationed at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, central TX when in the USAF. I can tell you, those guys are lucky. They're hitting the brief period of decent weather in central and southern Texas. By the end of March it's hot and humid (and I do mean hot and humid!) and stays that way until around late November. A brief cold (though not by Petawawa standards)and damp winter to about end of January.
Too bad the troops probably won't get any in-town time on that tight training schedule. The Texas ladies (Anglo AND Mexican-American) are lovely, very friendly and appreciate a guy who acts like a gentleman who'll take her out for a good time. (BTW, after you've known each other long enough to hit it off and he acts like a gentleman, he won't be a monk forever.)
Let me tell you: if you're stationed in Texas, you find yourself a nice gal,and you two get to know each other and like each other, take her out on a Saturday night for a great Tex-Mex dinner, then go to some great honky-tonk bar for a few drinks, some Texas country music and line dancing. It's a helluva lot of fun... and hopefully some romance later in the evening ... I'm telling you guys, it doesn't get any better than that!
Sorry for rambling on here-I'm walking down Memory Lane. Texas-those were the days!:-)
Post a Comment
<< Home