Ex Vigilant Guardian

[Loachman]

My first griphon experience on VG06. Famil flight was awesome... hope next year the scope of the exercise allows for more signals involvement. Got to go out on RRB which is always fun. probably be back next year unless i get a really late ql5's.

Where were you working?

We inserted a number of RRBs last year, which I consider to be a very worthwhile thing from the sigs' viewpoint (obviously), ours (as it's a little bit of variety and we get to play with others), and the supported  unit(s) benefit as well. Unfortunately, we only had four machines this year instead of eight to ten last year, and started with a couple of extra crews but were down to just four by the end. That made for some long and hectic days for them.

 

[Loachman]

During the Hot Wash (VG Awards Show??), some media clips from Ottawa's "A" Channel were shown.  In one clip, an OPFOR soldier is seen zap strapped and bagged.  The Comd LFCA/JTFC was sitting front row centre for that clip. ;D

He'd already seen it a couple of nights before at his nightly briefing - and, yes, comments were made by several people present.

 

[Haggis]

He'd already seen it a couple of nights before at his nightly briefing - and, yes, comments were made by several people present.

I suspected as much since no comment was made in the Hot Wash.  However the clip that got the biggest laugh was when the reporter noted that we become invisible when we take off the red and white flags.  I've tried it.  It doesn't work.  (I curse Clothe The Soldier.  They lied to us AGAIN!!)

Even though my company's lift lasted all of about 4 minutes, it was seriously cool to have your guys flying overhead of my road party on the CSO insertion and extraction.  Both elements (road and air) remarked positively on it.  Lots of LCF.

 

[jerrythunder]

I think that one fault that showed up, was in the RAIDs.  The troops have to be taught who will and how to search prisoners.  The 'passage' of prisoners has to be taught also.  I had a subordinate loose a pistol in an incorrect scenario.  She should not have been searching prisoners at that stage, nor should she have been armed in that case if she was.  It is something that all troops should be taught the very basics in, as it could have the opportunity of turning very deadly if they don't know how.

i also agree, having been one of the OPFOR riflemen i found that most soldiers didnt properly search the pockets and bodies of the dead or captured and ended up losing some vital intelegence that was planted on those bodies

 

[Loachman]

However the clip that got the biggest laugh was when the reporter noted that we become invisible when we take off the red and white flags.

Yes. The bright exercise unit patch worn below it, and left on, was clearly invisible to enemy eyes as well. They operate on a slightly different wavelength to friendly eyes after all. This is why we could see the huge cam net that they used to drag over the control tower in Lahr when I was stationed there, turning it into a huge, fuzzy green rectangle, but low-flying SU-24 pilots couldn't.

Even though my company's lift lasted all of about 4 minutes, it was seriously cool to have your guys flying overhead of my road party on the CSO insertion and extraction.  Both elements (road and air) remarked positively on it.  Lots of LCF.

I like to give longer rides, but we are now constrained due to airspace co-ordination. We had 2 RCHA mini-UAVs operating over the North Mattawa for most of the week, plus exercise live Arty and D Bty 2 RCHA with M777s as well. This kept the two-person ASCC next to me in the HQ pretty busy making sure that there were no conflicts between hels, shells, and fancy model aeroplanes. LZs and gun positions have very similar characteristics, and suitable areas are at a premium in the training area. I was worried that the ASCC people were going to be bored, but they got good training out of this, as did our guys (again, we only see this aspect once annually), and nobody hit anything that they shouldn't have. We had an Airspace Co-ordination Centre last year, for the first time, and it proved its worth even though it took a while for our guys to understand how the process works. ASCC folks are my newest favourite people.

 

[Poppa]

i also agree, having been one of the OPFOR riflemen i found that most soldiers didnt properly search the pockets and bodies of the dead or captured and ended up losing some vital intelegence that was planted on those bodies

It was passed down that when searching we were limited to certain areas only i.e. the torso and that if the bad guys..oops the OPFOR had any int on them they were supposed to had them over. Now just to be clear I'm a big fan of train as we fight and this force on force rule hampered that. Now just so those nasty OPFOR don't get too big a swelled head, we would have got the big stuff off you on site like your wpns etc...a more detailed search at the collecting point where we would hav found the docs...and last moving further down the chain we'd strip you down to your embarassed grin.

 

[Haggis]

I also agree, having been one of the OPFOR riflemen I found that most soldiers didnt properly search the pockets and bodies of the dead or captured and ended up losing some vital intelligence that was planted on those bodies.

As Poppa said, restrictions were placed on how we could search. If your docs were in one of thise "allowed" pockets, we should've found them.  A training point for next year.

Yes. The bright exercise unit patch worn below it, and left on, was clearly invisible to enemy eyes as well.

Some TF 33 soldier remarked that their patch bore the same colours as the US Army Ranger tab.  Amusing enough when you think that their CSO plan bore a striking resemblance to the movie "Blackhawk Down" and we had an embedded reporter named "Irene" with us.

I think the fact that this is a slow moving thread speaks volumes about the exercise being a "good go" generally.  Nobody is whining!

 

[Loachman]

I think the fact that this is a slow moving thread speaks volumes about the exercise being a "good go" generally.  Nobody is whining!

That was my guess - they can't all still be cleaning their kit and catching up on sleep.

 

[PteGDD]

I've never slept so much in the army as I did on VG.  BEST EX EVER.

 

[Andyd513]

Where were you working?

We inserted a number of RRBs last year, which I consider to be a very worthwhile thing from the sigs' viewpoint (obviously), ours (as it's a little bit of variety and we get to play with others), and the supported  unit(s) benefit as well. Unfortunately, we only had four machines this year instead of eight to ten last year, and started with a couple of extra crews but were down to just four by the end. That made for some long and hectic days for them.

I was with TF 31-06 .. we put the request up to be inserted by helo but the best that we could get was a famil flight, which worked out well as almost the entire detachment was able to go. Was a good ex next year I just hope theres more opportunity for me to get involved.

 

[Adrian]

TF 31's field kitchen was...well, I've never ate army food anywhere that was so good.  Quite a change from last year...

 

[Loachman]

Which may partially explain the drop in the number of visitors to 400 Sqn at meal times - we had competition...

 

[Pikache]

Aside from the sudden downpour on Sunday AM that caught my guys in the middle of helicopter loading/unloading practise and soaked us to the skin, overall, it was a great ex.

lol. My section was tasked to put up a fence all around Camp Bengal. Which brings me to first point.
If you're going to do something, like putting up a fence, at least do it right, instead of one strand of wire, or not put one up at all.

I think the soldiers generally found it to be a good ex.  Our FOB was well laid out and contributed to the effectiveness of the training.  The OPFOR (of which my son was a member against 32 CBG) was well briefed and used.

I agree as well. Camp Bengal was well organized and everything was good to go. But yeah. White light, mods and cots did some getting used to.

1. Presence patrols often made efforts to avoid being detected (i.e. diving into the ditch when vehicles approached, not using white light etc.) as junior leaders still equated patrolling with stealth.

It also helps to have presence patrols in urban area. I realize there isn't enough real estate to go around, but doing presence patrols in an area where there is no presence needed kinda defeats the purpose, otherwise it's just a walk on the road.

4.  Comms sucked.  Need more freqs and many, many more radios.  PRRs should be used on training like this as a supplement to TCCCS.

Agreed. Being 'out there' and might run into trouble and having no comms with a higher up is unsettling, esp. with armed bad guys running around. How does one solve that problem, when your FOB is outside of range of radios? (Have a mini CP somewhere half point?)

Also, when dropping arty sims, it defeats the purpose if it is meant for only certain section of the camp and advanced warning (or anything warning at all) reaches other units after the arty sims have been dropped. Having to scramble out from doing whatever and being told it's a false alarm means troops start to take them less seriously.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with the ex. OPFOR gave a lot of interesting scenarios to deal with (incl a firefight with PLA and a protester just happens to wander through, then an NGO shows up. How likely that is I'm not sure, but pretty interesting) Most of the time well organized and I think I learned a lot while enjoying the experience.

This is not badmouthing our armoured recce comrades, but do you guys know what an infantry guys want from recce on an objective? (IE suggested positions for assault and firebase, etc)

 

[Fishbone Jones]

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This is not badmouthing our armoured recce comrades, but do you guys know what an infantry guys want from recce on an objective? (IE suggested positions for assault and firebase, etc)

Did anyone bother telling them what you wanted to know. They can find out just about anything for you, but you got to give them mission specifics. Otherwise they tell you the basics, where the likely enemy is, what they're doing, and what they expect them to do and how. If they didn't do your COPPED for you, it's because they weren't asked to.

 

[Love793]

To add to what Recceguy said, Finding the Firebase and your Attack Positions are actually your Six Zeros job (close recce versus medium).  Again, if we are asked to do it we will be glad to, but we need to know in advance what you require so we can conduct a propper contact handover to you.

 

[Poppa]

Also, when dropping arty sims, it defeats the purpose if it is meant for only certain section of the camp and advanced warning (or anything warning at all) reaches other units after the arty sims have been dropped. Having to scramble out from doing whatever and being told it's a false alarm means troops start to take them less seriously.

Just to add my 0.02 in at our FOB the SOP that was passed down to us was when under "arty" attack...put on your helmets and carry on as per. When someone asked what about if we're sleeping..the response was to roll over and go back to sleep.
Now as an old guy I appreciate this type of SOP but it's doing a disservice IMO.

 

[Haggis]

Just to add my 0.02 in at our FOB the SOP that was passed down to us was when under "arty" attack...put on your helmets and carry on as per. When someone asked what about if we're sleeping..the response was to roll over and go back to sleep.
Now as an old guy I appreciate this type of SOP but it's doing a disservice IMO.

This was a point I was hoping to bring out at the "Hot Wash", but alas, it turned into "The Vigilant Guardian Awards".  I found it fascinating that a lot of points were collated, analysed and brought forward in a stunning display of PowerPoint legerdemain, but I don't recall anyone soliciting input from my OC or I.

 

[George Wallace]

Just to add my 0.02 in at our FOB the SOP that was passed down to us was when under "arty" attack...put on your helmets and carry on as per. When someone asked what about if we're sleeping..the response was to roll over and go back to sleep.
Now as an old guy I appreciate this type of SOP but it's doing a disservice IMO.

The main point of it was that pers didn't start running from one end of the FOB to the other end where they had left their helmet and vest, etc.  If they did not have them handy, they were not to make themselves casualties by running around the Camp to get them. 

 

[George Wallace]

Passage of Info Up and Down needs to be improved.  With the plans for next year being out in the RMA, the passage of Info, by all means, is going to be very problematic.  As many in the upper echelons have already said, the planning has to start now.  In some cases, there will be a drastic need of a miracle or series of miracles to make it happen.

 

[Haggis]

True, George.

Speaking of miracles, I beleive in the miracle of immaculate conception and birth.

I've already tasked my CQMS to store all out TCCCS kit in a comfortable room with soft lighting and romantic music in hopes that our stocks of radios will multiply before next August.