September - December 2001

With summer leave, postings and indeed taskings taking their toll, Labour Day long weekend came and went all-to-fast before the majority of C Squadron was back together. All-to-quickly, yet another busy training period begins and as with all squadrons, the Fall promises to be extremely hectic.

In our case the Squadron will be launching into Primary Combat Function cycle shortly which will see a Leopard C-2 Gunners Course, an M113 Light Track Course and an Armoured Recovery Vehicle Operators Course for a select few crewman. The Squadron also hopes to be able to put together a Heavy Machine Gunners Course (.50 cal) for our Admin Troop personnel. It’s been quite a while since formal training was conducted on the .50 cal, so we all look forward to using them more often and once again hear them fired on the range. To make this happen, in light of everything else ongoing, will no doubt pose a true challenge.

As always in the Fall, there is also a chance for at least some of the squadron to get out to the field to support the Regimental Pre-6A course in Wainwright. For five short days, five tanks and crews with a small echelon enjoy the freedom and fun of the field. While the rest of the Squadron looks ahead to November and the Regimental Gun Camp and live fire combat team training, much work remains to be done beforehand. Many of the key players such as the Battle Captain, Sergeant-Major and SQ are not only working out the details of the November exercise, but are also actively working on the Squadron’s deployment to Resolute Bay, Northwest Territory in January. Given these relatively compressed time lines, the majority of planning for the Resolute Bay exercise must also be completed prior to deploying to Suffield in November.

This Fall will also see the Squadron stand up its fourth troop and for the first time in a long time flush out its echelon. As well as providing the obvious and needed tactical capability, it will gratefully ease the maintenance burden which proved a continuous and trying challenge over the past few months. C Squadron welcomes all of its new members.