As my platoon 2IC said, "You've got to fill a lot of sandbags before you can stand behind them."
So what about the rest of the exercise from the perspective of the trained soldiers?
I was in B Coy, and on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give this exercise a B+.
The cordon and search stand was pretty good. The Raleigh facility was just right for the scope of the stand. There was an interesting OPFOR including skits like "woman having a baby". This was probably the showcase stand for inter-arms cooperation: we had armoured recce, engineers, and Vancouver Police attached in a way that didn't seem tacked on. Gripes: 1) Inner cordon was really boring, amounting to sitting by a bush for hours. 2) With only 2 helicopters at this point in the ex, insertion of the inner cordon by helicopter (in 2 lifts) was a little forced. 3) After they issued the Simunition kits in Tranquille someone had a safety bird and we were told we wouldn't be using them at all because there were civilians (re: Rangers) in the area. Eventually this got clarified as: we wouldn't be using them in Upper Raleigh, at which point it became obvious that the next day would involve a deliberate attack on lower Raleigh. Even so, the safety staff said the ex would pause if he even so much as saw a magazine on a simunition weapon. So why issue them at all until we needed them?
The lower Raleigh deliberate attack was also pretty good. The engineers (?) who put together the FIBUA houses did a great job. The assault itself was good too. After "end ex" for the stand we got more time with the simunition vs. OPFOR which was okay but the Rocky Mountain Rangers were a bit goofy sometimes. At least on my side of the building they had a corporal running the OPFOR and it would have been nice to have a senior NCO who knew a bit more about what would be a good training scenario.
Next for us was the live fire section stand, which was the highlight of the exercise. Aside from a couple oddities (slanty mod tents and a bizarre biv site brief: "stay on your side of the track!") the range was very well run. The pop-up targets were good and I think everyone had a great experience.
The last stand was the "raid", probably the weakest of the activities. Battle procedure was a little wonky here, and we had to rush some patrols out the door on Wednesday night. The assault boat crossing was very forced. If there was any activity to use helicopters on, this was it. Most of us had the impression we were walking up a gigantic hill so that earlier we could have a good photo-op with the boats. Having MILES was good but it is probably not best suited to a 36-hour exercise with no opportunity to exercise evacuation of casualties. Most casualties got revived by the "God gun" after varying delays. The attack itself changed from a raid to a deliberate attack because the enemy knew where we were and we had a chance of wrapping it up Thursday night. Our attack was pretty good but a lesson learned was that when deciding in the late afternoon between a left or right flanking consider where the sun will be on the horizon when the attack goes in! Attacking with the sun in your eyes is not morale-inducing.
In an exercise that promised just about everything (helicopters, MILES, simunition, assault boats, live fire) Cougar Salvo 05 delivered it all. Well done, those who planned it. Hopefully it will be as good or better next year.
This was my take on the ex. Anyone (especially from TF Cougar) have augmenting or dissenting opinions?
So what about the rest of the exercise from the perspective of the trained soldiers?
I was in B Coy, and on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give this exercise a B+.
The cordon and search stand was pretty good. The Raleigh facility was just right for the scope of the stand. There was an interesting OPFOR including skits like "woman having a baby". This was probably the showcase stand for inter-arms cooperation: we had armoured recce, engineers, and Vancouver Police attached in a way that didn't seem tacked on. Gripes: 1) Inner cordon was really boring, amounting to sitting by a bush for hours. 2) With only 2 helicopters at this point in the ex, insertion of the inner cordon by helicopter (in 2 lifts) was a little forced. 3) After they issued the Simunition kits in Tranquille someone had a safety bird and we were told we wouldn't be using them at all because there were civilians (re: Rangers) in the area. Eventually this got clarified as: we wouldn't be using them in Upper Raleigh, at which point it became obvious that the next day would involve a deliberate attack on lower Raleigh. Even so, the safety staff said the ex would pause if he even so much as saw a magazine on a simunition weapon. So why issue them at all until we needed them?
The lower Raleigh deliberate attack was also pretty good. The engineers (?) who put together the FIBUA houses did a great job. The assault itself was good too. After "end ex" for the stand we got more time with the simunition vs. OPFOR which was okay but the Rocky Mountain Rangers were a bit goofy sometimes. At least on my side of the building they had a corporal running the OPFOR and it would have been nice to have a senior NCO who knew a bit more about what would be a good training scenario.
Next for us was the live fire section stand, which was the highlight of the exercise. Aside from a couple oddities (slanty mod tents and a bizarre biv site brief: "stay on your side of the track!") the range was very well run. The pop-up targets were good and I think everyone had a great experience.
The last stand was the "raid", probably the weakest of the activities. Battle procedure was a little wonky here, and we had to rush some patrols out the door on Wednesday night. The assault boat crossing was very forced. If there was any activity to use helicopters on, this was it. Most of us had the impression we were walking up a gigantic hill so that earlier we could have a good photo-op with the boats. Having MILES was good but it is probably not best suited to a 36-hour exercise with no opportunity to exercise evacuation of casualties. Most casualties got revived by the "God gun" after varying delays. The attack itself changed from a raid to a deliberate attack because the enemy knew where we were and we had a chance of wrapping it up Thursday night. Our attack was pretty good but a lesson learned was that when deciding in the late afternoon between a left or right flanking consider where the sun will be on the horizon when the attack goes in! Attacking with the sun in your eyes is not morale-inducing.
In an exercise that promised just about everything (helicopters, MILES, simunition, assault boats, live fire) Cougar Salvo 05 delivered it all. Well done, those who planned it. Hopefully it will be as good or better next year.
This was my take on the ex. Anyone (especially from TF Cougar) have augmenting or dissenting opinions?
