Training for Afstan: Exercise Maple Guardian 0801

The next rotation is Task Force 3-08, scheduled to arrive in August this year. The Task Force trained earlier this year in Texas. Now they're on their final collective exercise:

This month, soldiers from the Task Force 3-08 Battle Group Canadian Forces Base Petawawa and other locations across Canada are in Wainwright, Alberta, to take part in Exercise Maple Guardian 0801.

What does the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre in Wainwright have to offer that makes this place the final major collective training milestone before the Battle Group is ready to deploy to Afghanistan? "CMTC can provide a level of realism that is not achievable anywhere else in Canada," said Lieutenant Colonel Roger Barrett, commanding officer of Task Force 3-08. "Incorporating actors, role players and an extremely advanced Weapons Effects Simulation system (check the website--more here), will allow us to test our ability to operate in a very complex, dynamic and sometimes chaotic environment."

Perhaps its poetic justice, revenge or just payback for spending the month of February in the desert of New Mexico, many of the soldiers arrived in the training area to be greeted by fresh snow.

"Be it snow or sand it's just another obstacle that we have to be prepared to overcome," added Lieutenant Colonel Barrett. "Being able to adapt is just one of the reasons why Canadian Forces members are among the best trained and most experienced soldiers in the world." The exercise will go on until the middle of May, at which time, Task Force 3-08 will be ready to take on the difficult tasks in Afghanistan.

Details of the composition of the Task Force are here.

Update: If one ignores the attitude there is some good, detailed stuff in this column by Scott Taylor.