C SQUADRON IN THE FIELD

Lt E. Manouchehri

October 2002

The month of October saw the Squadron in the field to conduct a variety of exercises in preparation for Op PALLADIUM (Bosnia) Rotation 12.  The first of two exercises was held in Wainwright.  The primary purpose of the exercise STRATHCONA SNIPER V was a gun camp, to complete the conversion of the Squadron from tank to Coyote in order to fulfill our new role as a reconnaissance squadron.  The soldiers on the course without previous Coyote experience adapted very well to the new weapon system (although a few were heard to say: “It doesn’t like me and I don’t like it” after about a hundred misfires).

Once the course shoots were complete, we had the opportunity to conduct both patrol and troop level battle runs.  The Troops gelled remarkably quickly and worked very well as a team going down range.  Second troop (in the BC’s eyes) proved to be the masters of cautious sneak and peak and didn’t “pull a 31” – blasting everything in sight.  Third Troop was second to none when it came to gunnery skills, blasting targets at 2800m.

The exercise in Wainwright also allowed the Troops to get out and practice troop recce tactics on our own for a couple of days.  It proved to be an enjoyable and difficult challenge.  Removing the tanker mentality proved the biggest hurdle.  Although our schedule was busy, the Squadron managed to get the troops home for Thanksgiving with their families for a well-deserved break.

We were back at it right away with another deployment, this one to sunny, snowy, and always windy Suffield by way of an extremely long road move (450+ kms!!!).  The first few days of Exercise PACING RAM were devoted to more troop training.  After overcoming a few difficulties early in the Ex (flexibility is a characteristic of the Armoured Corps), the three troops managed to get out for some quality training time.  We had the opportunity to hone skills in route and area recce, convoy escort, observations posts, and dismounted patrolling.

After two days out on the plains it was time for the OC to put us to the test.  A challenging 24 hour trace was drawn up and the Squadron deployed shortly before last light into an Observation Post (OP) screen.  Early the next morning, under cover of fog and snow, which made the always challenging task of navigating Suffield even more so, the advance began with a route recce and then rolling into an area recce.  The trace provided a rewarding training experience given that it was the first time we were conducting such tasks as a Squadron with a live enemy force.

Following that trace, we removed our recce hats and replaced them with our safety ones as the Squadron prepared to act as armoured safety staff for the combat team live-fire trace.  This was a completely different and all together more stressfull task.  In the end, all was successful as this challenging combat team live fire range was conducted with no major injuries incurred and a lot of tank (courtesy A Sqn RCD) and 25mm (courtesy 1 and 2 PPCLI) ammo fired down range.  Those soldiers not employed in the safety organization kept themselves busy with the Iltis and LSVW courses which should help out greatly in Bosnia for Roto 12.

By the book, the Squadron had a very successful month, completing all required Warfighting Battle Task Standards for deployment to Bosnia.  In the coming months we will be concentrating on the more Bonia specific training, including Individua Battle Task standards such as C7 Rifle, Armoured Fighting Vehicle Identification, Navigation, etc…  Clearly, the pace will not slacken for C Squadron