Fall, 2004 – Issue II

FOO Tech Course 0401
by Myles Mansell

Shilo, MB – This summer WATC ran a FOO Tech course. Some think that it wasn’t the right course to run but that is neither here nor there. It was run in the 1 RCHA lines, utilizing the IFT they possess. I was on this course along with a few other Five Fielders; in fact, save the 1 RCHA instructors, the whole course was Five Field. MBdr Chris Shillington, Bdr Brian Walts, Bdr Richelle Orze and Bdr Kelly Perpeluk were the other candidates as well as our very own MBdr Darrell Stubbington, the shining light of reason, as the only Reserve Instructor.

The course started on the 12th of July, running for 14 days of training. Most of the time was spent in the IFT but there were also several classroom lectures along with a few deployments to the field. Being in the IFT is a great assist to a soldier’s learning. You can have the IFT Operator make up several scenarios that let you call in fast air attacks, have moving convoys to shoot at, all tied in with all kinds of weather and wind factors. Since it is all electronic there is no worry about the cost or availability of the rounds. You also have all other types of rounds at your disposal that would not be allowed or available in normal situations.

We were housed in L103 which brought back memories of Basic for Shillington and myself. Up on the 3rd floor it was scorching hot and there was no sign of abatement. Putting in TSRs for fans was priority but it was apparently damnation without relief. The hot, prairie breeze blew through the barracks and made being in Shilo for 2 1/2 weeks even more unbearable. During the day we escaped the beating sun by retreating to the solace of the 1 RCHA lines and the glory of air-conditioning.

Finally it was the end of course and we were deploying to the field. Shillington and I were designated ICs for Call signs 11 and 12. 12, me, led the convoy out into the field. We deployed in Deilenhoffen, just south of Round Plain. Misjudging my map slightly we overshot the turn to head off-road. As we backtracked I dismounted and ran ahead of the vehicles to guide them in. The most we had to go was about 900 meters. Small hills, or mountains to prairie folk, are all that lay ahead of us and I wasn’t totally sure of a good OP base. In our convoy we had the 2 OP parties, the Instructors’ vehicle, and the Firefighter ML. I crested a small hill and brought the vehicles into a bit of a tabletop. I could see we were within 400m of the grid I was given and that was within my orders parameters. As I decided we could drive a little ways farther I was about to order the trucks down a steep, but do-able, hill I was shut down by the DS. Apparently I had led the vehicles on the wrong way in and now I was going to have some issues. 200 or so meters from this position were some blue rockets and that was our grid; as for my punishment we had to dismount where we were and move all our stores by foot up to our new home for the next 24 hours.

The two OPs were collocated on a inside lip of a light depression on the top of a hill. Visibility was excellent over Round Plain and the tree that was to be named ‘Killer Tree’. Several hulks were out in the Plain which were excellent targets but due to the new safety circle, a whooping 800m for all weapons, were unable to be fired at. Stupid new CIG directive. My first target was one of those hulks but since we couldn’t do any drop corrections we cancelled that target and MBdr Stubbington gave me ’3 stripes on hill’. Now it got interesting. First off, unbeknownst to me, I had picked the wrong grid on the map and was off a ways. There were 2 ridges, one close and one far, which sadly I picked the close one. As I started to adjust onto the target I became very aware of the dead ground that was out there. Then we had a strange occurrence. One round fell right of the target so I gave a left correction, and it fell on the other side of the target. Hmmm, a little too far apparently. I gave a right correction to get on for line and the round went farther left. WTF! Those guys at the guns asleep?! We carried on with the mission and I was shut down for wasting rounds. C’est la vie; but later Bdr Orza had the same problem which we diagnosed to be a problem with one of the guns. Damn B Bty.

The rest of the day carried on well enough and we went to ground around 2330. Sentry. Shillington took charge and tried to work out some kind of weird, drug induced, overlapping sentry shift. Only the criminally insane would have been able to figure it out; even Shillington couldn’t. So we made a quick COMMAND decision that him and I would have the first 3 1/2 hour shift and we would wake up two others to do the other 3 hour shift before reveille. 3 1/2 hours? Sigh. Ah well.

The next morning brought promise that the exercise would soon be over and we would be able to leave the geographical abomination that was Shilo; all that was left was Fire Planning. Bdr Walts and I were up first and got off our plan pretty much without a hitch. We were done. We could pack up, fill in the trench and get ready to go. Once we had finished we sat on the ridge and watched the rest of the shoot. OIC WATC decided to make an appearance out at the OP so it soon became a dog and pony show up at our beloved ridge. On that note Murphy showed up with all his wacky laws and decided that at that moment 11 would lose comms. A gong show erupted and within fifteen minutes comms was restored but not without a small loss of face for the course staff.

Once all is said and done we return to camp. As we went through our kit back at M102 we found we were missing an antennae for the man-pack and were contemplating trying to put the radio back into stores on the QT. Alas, it didn’t work out that way and we had a nice kit inspection on the parade square inside M102… are we recruits? Its an antennae!! In neat, perfect lines we had all our kit, webbing, weapon, helmet et cetera and then the staff didn’t even look at it – PACK IT UP – They were going to take us back out to the field and dig up our old trenches. At the last minute they cancelled that and just chewed us out for a bit.

Thus ends my FOO Tech Course. In summary a good course if you enjoy the OP; next year the course has expanded to a 5 week go as opposed to 2 and a half weeks.