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The face of the Canadian Forces reserve
units is changing quite literally, as the older more experienced
soldiers begin to fill the ranks of the regular army in
Afghanistan.
ALEX MCCUAIG
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The face of the Canadian Forces reserve
units is changing quite literally, as the older more experienced
soldiers begin to fill the ranks of the regular army in
Afghanistan.
This new breed of soldiers is mostly too
young to remember the country’s peacekeeping missions in the
Balkans or Somalia but are the first generation of troops who have
grown up in the post 9-11 Canada. What was considered the
“new normal” after those attacks is their normal.
Some reserve units are seeing a good chunk
of their troops take positions overseas, leaving behind the
smooth-skinned teenagers and young men and women whose faces
dominated the landscape of last weekend’s exercises at
Canadian Forces Base Suffield.
The war games encompassed the South
Alberta Light Horse, 20th Royal Canadian Artillery, 18th Air
Defense, King’s Own Calgary and 15th Field Regiments in an
artillery support role of a mock British Forces advance along the
Helmand-Kandahar provincial border in Afghanistan.
One commander called the operation,
“the little exercise that grew,” after several Alberta
units decided to join the 18th and 20th Regiment’s artillery
training.
Captain Payne of the South Alberta Light
Horse said most of his Regiment’s privates are between 16 and
21 years old, with many of the officers being under the age of
37.
“That has more to do with the fact
we have many of our troops overseas who are more experienced and
trained so the soldiers that we see today are mostly
younger,” Payne said.
SALH Lieutenant Roberts looks more like a
man who should be relaxing on a college campus with his peers
rather than commanding a unit of half a dozen G-Wagon patrol jeeps
and calling in artillery strikes with an even more boyish-looking
driver in Trooper Wohl.
But to see the Lieutenant command his
squad of privates and corporals with clear and concise orders is to
know that though young, these individuals know the risks and
consequences of mistakes.
See Training, Page A2
“I agree with the good going on over
there and Canada’s role,” said Wohl when asked why he
wanted to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The whole way the Canadian army is
training has completely changed, according to Master Bombardier
Waters from Red Deer, as the threat is no longer from an army
coming across a European border but from small groups who are
usually outgunned and can creep into the civilian population.
“Our role in Afghanistan is to be
carrying a big stick,” said Waters from his artillery command
post on Dubois Hill at CFB Suffield.
“The big change is, in the Cold War
we were training for equal force. Now, as the Americans put it, we
are fighting snakes.”
Training of the young reservists is
intense with mock rocket attacks being carried out during the first
night of the exercise.
No quarter was given and none asked for,
even though many had worked their day jobs earlier before traveling
for up to six hours to reach the windswept base camp with
temperatures well below zero.
Directing the reservists on the artillery
line was Lethbridge native Warrant Officer Wittibole - a man who
could do more with a few choice expletives than the world’s
greatest poet with the entire English language.
“This exercise hones their skills in
gunnery,” said Wittibole. “These exercises give a good
opportunity for a young soldier or individual who is looking for
something different.”
According to the Warrant Officer, the
training the reservists get now is the first step in allowing them
to be able to lay fire down within a few hundred metres of soldiers
when in Afghanistan.
Corporal Knultgen’s reasons for
joining the forces and wishing to go to Afghanistan echoed much of
what his colleagues said.
“There are two reasons why you join
the army. One is to defend your country and two is to protect your
country’s interest overseas.”
Knultgen said there are currently six
members from his 18th Regiment serving in Afghanistan and a handful
of others who have returned from tours.
“They tell me it’s dirty and
ugly over there. Everyone I’ve asked about the mission - no
matter what their personal beliefs - they have all said that we are
making a difference. From the time they step off the plane until
they get back on it, it’s a better place.”
Knultgen said he understands that many
people have reservations about the mission.
“People say we are fighting a war
but we are just holding off the bad guys so the country can rebuild
itself.”
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