Recce Sqn Prepares for Spring Exercises

By: Tpr Jeff Graves
27 February 2009

 

As we enter the New Year the requirement for a fully manned Recce Squadron to support the 2010 Olympics becomes ever closer. To fulfill this task Recce Squadron ran several PCF’s during February and March.

 

Recce Squadron kicked off a Turret Operators Course (TOC) on February 9th 2009 which ran until February 26th 2009. The two instructors, MCpl Cory Bulmer and MCpl Jesse Scheller had their hands full to teach the students all about the 25mm M242 Bushmaster Chain gun. The TOC course covered everything in the turret from top to bottom, including the cycle of the 25mm. The students on the TOC course soon had to know the phrase “life begins and ends in sear” very well. The gunnery drills learned during the course were hard to remember at first but came to the students as second nature by the time the course was over. The TOC course was a lot of information to learn in a short period of time. The students had a lot of studying to do but with the experience of MCpl Bulmer and MCpl Scheller the students absorbed the information quickly.

 

The LAV TUA (tow-under-armour) course ran from February 9th 2009 until March 6th 2009. The TOW gunner course was taught by Sgt John “knows his stuff” Faught, Sgt Mike Caufield and MCpl Chris Oliver. The students on the TOW course had a lot of hard work to learn all about the missiles, loading, unloading, misfires, and the TUA’s powerful optic capabilities.

The TOW course covered AVAMS training where the students learned how to administratively crew command the vehicle. It was reported that they had to clear a wide path when it was Tpr Alexander Fanni’s turn to crew command. I’m sure the course heard Cpl John Johnson’s favourite quote, “Can we have a beer call?”, once too often during this phase.

 

The LAV driver’s course was held from February 9th 2009 until February 26th 2009. Sgt Jeff Green and MCpl Ryan Torney were the instructors on this course. They had to teach the students all about driver maintenance. The LAV driver’s course consisted of a lot of information regarding what type of fluids and how many litres to use for each part on the vehicle. The students learned how to maintain the LAV so any faults can be fixed in Garrison prior to leaving for the field. The instructors and students had some long days when the driving portion of the course started. They had to drive both day and night in order to get their hours behind the wheel. They had to endure listening to Tpr Wallace Churchill complain about missing hockey practice. I’m sure the students learned a lot from Sgt Green and MCpl Torney, due to the combined experience of both instructors.

 

Now that the Garrison portion of the TOC, TOW gunner and LAV driver courses are over, the students are preparing for gun camp in Wainwright which will run from March 15-24th. The students can put what they have learned to the test on the firing range and make some wood targets into toothpicks. Good luck guys and have fun putting rounds down range!