More news on that “secret”…
[quote]THRUST INTO ACTION:Canadian Soldiers fine-tune tactics in fight against Tailban terrorists
CAMP DONA ANA, FORT BLISS, New Mexico – The moonlight cuts silhouettes of soldiers and army tanks as the Canadian battle group prepares for a surprise assault.
Hours after the day dawns, the convoy makes its sluggish launch, picking up speed as the rolling sandy dunes flatten to tougher desert terrain. In single file, the army of LAVs, tanks and roughly 150 combat troops, including an Afghan contingent, make a 12-km trek to the “objective” of the attack.
This massive mock exercise, staged to train Canadian soldiers bound for Kandahar, uses a recreated “typical” Afghan village and live fire, jets, tanks and vehicles transported from Canada. The location, a sprawling U.S. army base that straddles Texas and New Mexico, closely resembles the mountains and desert terrain of Afghanistan.
After the main platoons arrive at the operational battle line, reinforcements move in from the west. Rocket-propelled grenades are hurled from the village and improvised explosive devices are detected – both confirming intelligence reports that the area is held by enemy Taliban insurgents.
Then comes the thunder of fire from the Canadians; a combination of artillery fire air power from CF-18s to “soften” the target before the assault force moves in. By foot, the soldiers who are supported by Afghan allies eventually move in to clear: Room by room, building by building, from mosque to school to barracks.
Clearing the village is not without resistance. By the end of this mock bloody battle there are a dozen friendly, civilian and insurgent casualties and at least two dangerous detainees captured.
More than 3,000 soldiers from Petawawa, Edmonton and Toronto are taking part in a major, month-long training exercise called “Operation Southern Bear” that will cost about $25 million and includes live shooting ranges, desert convoy escorts and foot patrols for deadly explosives.
In climate and conditions similar to what they will experience in Kandahar, the soldiers sleep in barracks or in tents hugging the mountainside. Often they rise at 3 a.m. to begin the day’s training exercise, or work well into the dark hours to fine-tune night-fighting capabilities.
MATTER OF SURVIVAL
Urban patrols with Afghan allies are a major part of the exercise for the observer mentoring and liaison teams (OMLT), where the motto is expect the unexpected. Soldiers learn how to make life-or-death, split-second decisions on whether someone is a hostile enemy or in need of their protection.
In one simulated exercise, Canadian troops with drawn rifles close in to enter a four-building compound suspected of being a Taliban gathering point. An enemy insurgent lurking inside draws his own weapon, hoping to hold his ground offensively. But after a few missed shots, the dirt and dust flies inside the two-level building as Canadian troops storm in.
“Down on the ground!” hollers one soldier, eventually bringing the insurgent to the ground with hands above his head.
This kind of training and practice pounds in the teamwork and tactics that are critical for soldiers who need to think on their feet in theatre.
“When you get over there, everything has to be a drill,” explains Capt. Blair Ashford. “We do these stands when there’s no risk or threat so when you get over there, meeting civilians on the street or hitting an IED, you can react quickly and appropriately.”
American and Mexican actors have been hired to play the role of “friendly” civilians, enemy insurgents and Afghan security forces. The Canadian soldier’s role in the OMLT is to mentor local police and soldiers – a job that requires patience and knowing when to stand back and defer to the Afghans.
“A lot of military people tend to be Type A personalities and want to take over when things aren’t going the way they think it should go,” Ashford says. “Something we do have to train is to be patient and to let them go through their plan. In some cases these soldiers have been fighting 20 years in Afghanistan, so they’ve got a lot more time fighting in their country than we do.”
Searching for and destroying improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is another key component to Operation Southern Bear. Dirt cheap and deadly, they are the weapon of choice for the Taliban and the major source of casualties among Canadian troops.
Creeping in two-lane formation with weapons drawn, a team of soldiers scours the landscape searching for IEDs. Often tiny and inconspicuous among trash or beneath rocks, the group is tasked with identifying the threats and responding accordingly.
U.S. Army Master Sgt. David Shindel has had personal encounters with IEDs in Iraq, and is sharing his experiences in a sobering two-hour lecture to Canadian troops.
“They’re catastrophic. They work well, they’re inexpensive and they’re easy for them to use because of the terrain,” he says. “They’re creative people and using homemade explosives is a common practice. The items by themselves are not illegal, but put them together because they’re readily available, and they’re deadly. And they know how to use them.”
IEDs are nothing new – Afghans used them decades ago against the Soviets – but they are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Some of the new projectile technology that is particularly lethal is making its way from Iraq to the Afghanistan theatre.
DETECTION IS KEY
An “IED petting zoo” gives soldiers tips on identifying and detecting the explosives, and shows how they can be hidden in anything from garbage or sand to abandoned cars. But while specialized equipment and armoured vehicles can help protect soldiers from harm after an explosion, Shindel insists the first line of safety is detection.
“Our biggest defence is their minds and their eyes, being constantly aware of what’s going on – that’s our biggest defence,” he says.
All of this is crucial training for Cpl. David Macdonald, 23, of Toronto, who will provide security protection on road patrols and supply convoys when he deploys for his first tour to Afghanistan this summer. Recognizing the inherent dangers of the job, he says the lives of his comrades depend on his ability to keep his head.
“You really see how ingenious they are when it comes to building these IEDs and placing them, and how hyper-vigilant you have to be in looking out for them,” Macdonald says. “We’ve been doing training for over seven months now and still to this day you see new things every day, new from theatre, on the tour right now.”
But Macdonald accepts the dangers and vows to do everything in his power to keep his “buddies” safe.
“I didn’t sign up to lie in a comfy bed rubbing a teddy bear, I came to do this. It’s a responsibility that comes with the job,” he says. “I joined the army wanting to go overseas, and I hope I can come back with my head held high.”
Convoy-driving exercises are also part of the Fort Bliss training, where soldiers ride a 32-km route in the desert and encounter mock villages with both friendly locals and ambushes by insurgents and IEDs.
Col. Dean Milner, a native of Winnipeg who is now brigade commander at Petawawa, says the collective exercise reflects the evolution of the mission to more development with provincial reconstruction teams and counter-insurgency fights that help local Afghan police and soldiers take the lead on security operations. “I just came back from Afghanistan and it’s not a secure country,” he says. “We really have to still focus on the training of being able to defeat an enemy in location. That needs to be extremely well conducted.”
Edmonton-based Second Lieut. Dan Gray will deploy next year as a troop leader, and he’s anxious to put his skills into practice.
As a recent graduate of the Royal Military College, he says the training exercises at Fort Bliss put him one step closer – and make him better prepared – for Kandahar.
“It shows you the adaptability of everything instead of the textbook way. It gives you a good sense of what can happen and how to deal with different situations,” he says.
Ottawa Sun[/quote]
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