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Published: February 16th 2010
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We departed Ottawa at 4 AM on Friday headed for Las Vegas and ultimately Fort Irwin, CA. The people booking the flights had forgotten that we had a massive amount of gear to carry and failed to realize that the Dash 8 propeller aircraft that was to fly us from Ottawa to Montreal could simply not carry that amount of cargo.
So instead, we loaded all of our luggage on a truck and boarded a small bus bound for the Pierre-Trudeau Airport in Montreal to catch a 9:20 flight to McCarran Airport right off the strip in Vegas. The flight departed about an hour behind schedule. Getting through security was another story altogether. The hoops one must now jump through to fly to the US are time consuming to say the least. Nonetheless, customs was fairly quick. We all have an Afghan Visa in our passports and this is a conversation starter with US customs agents. They are quite sympathetic when they hear about what we are training for.
A small Canadian military delegation greeted us at the airport in Vegas and guided the 17 of us along with a couple of dozen Government Organization workers to a pair
of buses. These workers represent organizations such as Foreign Affairs and will also be heading to Afghanistan at some point to manage various reconstruction programs.
The bus ride to Fort Irwin was about 3 hours long and was punctuated with a rest stop. We rolled up onto the humongous base just around supper time and were shown to our quarters. All the civilian males (including us) shared a large structure that is better classified as a warehouse than any type of sleeping quarters. In fact, there were no beds, cots were to be issued to us. Bathroom and shower facilities were but a short walk away.
So, after being issued our cots, sleeping bags and various other gear, I staked out a piece of floor to call my own and put together my bed. I later took some time to visit the little store that was on the base and purchased a pillow. I did not sleep well that first night, a combination of factors ensured that. The following day, a Saturday, was mostly comprised of orientation meetings, with the best one pertaining to an indigenous species of turtles that are rare and therefore protected by law and
for whose protection, apparently, human’s are supposed to sacrifice themselves… Save the turtles!
On Sunday, more kit was issued, including the gear that basically runs the simulation. It is best described as a harness that all participants must wear at all times that will detect the laser fired by weapons and determine if you are dead or injured. This is all controlled by computer and there is no arguing about whether you were hit or not!
After lunch, we were moved into more austere surroundings, a place built in the middle of nowhere designed to simulate Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar. As you move through the desert towards the camp, small villages dot the countryside. These are middle eastern villages that the US military had build by Hollywood set designers to use during exercises that sometimes simulate Iraq and other times Afghanistan. No state secrets here, it’s all on You tube!
The camp is build right up along side one of these villages. During the day, the village is populated with actors portraying locals. There are loudspeakers in the village that not only play the call to prayer but also a soundtrack of street noises. So you
hear motorcycles, vehicles, machinery, etc at all times. When I finally went on my first patrol on Thursday, I actually caught myself looking for motorcycles a couple of times. The sound effects are just that real!
Life on this base is rugged. Much more so than the real thing I am told. Sleeping quarters consist of a large tent with a tarp on the ground. Cots are set up in rows on the uneven floor and large industrial sized heater fans keep you somewhat warm at night. The soldiers are way more packed in than we are. I walked into one of their tents and saw what I would describe as some sort of surreal ant colony for people. Showers are in 2 semi trailers with 16 showers each. The women have 8 of the 32 reserved for them. Toilets are standard issue port-o-potties randomly spaced out throughout camp. Without wanting to get terribly graphic, I have learned to welcome the sound of the vac trucks pumping them out in the early hours…
The first three days of the exercise saw me taking up administrative duties for the CIVPOL (civilian police) branch. I worked side by side with
our commanders devising plans for the exercise and filing all the daily reports required up the chain of command. Countless meetings take place everyday to determine how to best make use of all the resources available here.
The first CIVPOL patrol went out on Tuesday. One of our people on patrol was “shot” as the group took some fire inside the fictitious village of Ertabat Shar. As this exercise is to be treated as the real deal, he was medevac’d out of the village once the military was able to secure it. Exercise rules state that any casualties will be taken to an undisclosed location and be considered out of play for a 24 hr period. I was working the phones and emails frantically trying to coordinate the next of kin notification with officials in Ottawa (not really Ottawa though). The policeman was only slightly wounded as it turns out and ended up being taken to a hospital in Germany (not really Germany). He did tell us that the military medics did start a real I.V. in him during his treatment.
On Friday, I was relieved of my admin duties and made it outside the wire on my
first patrol. Along with a couple of military companies, I participated in a foot patrol into the village adjacent to the camp. I had heard from the others that they had become very nervous upon entering the village despite knowing that it was all a simulation. I felt surprisingly calm, in fact I was in awe of the lengths they had gone to in order to make it as real as possible. Town’s folk milled about, sipping tea at tea houses and playing board games. Vendors sold fruit and bread from roadside stands while women hung clothing out to dry. We meandered through town in what is called a “presence patrol” in military speak. No incidents on this day.
Since then I have been on a number of patrols, I have ridden in a LAV (light armoured vehicle - Google it) as well as in a G-Wagon, a military version of a Mercedes SUV.
The food here has been very good, I am in awe of what the military cooks can accomplish in a field kitchen. As we passed the half way mark in the exercise, the weather has turned into what you would expect in California in
February: Highs in the low 20’s and beautiful sunshine.
The exercise will wind down on the 22nd at which point I’ll be spending a night in Vegas before departing for Vancouver to meet up with Erin who is working at the Olympic Games in Whistler. I’ll be in Saskatoon for only 3 days before heading back to Ottawa. My deployment date is still looking like March 26.
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Wolfgang
non-member comment
Exercise??????????????
Pat, I'd like to see the real thing if this is just exercise. I suppose the only difference will be, somebody will shoot live ammo at you. Keep your a$$ low ;-))) Wolfgang