Those Calgary Highlanders who are now part of Task Force 1-08 recently completed a five-week exercise that kicked off their pre-deployment training for Afghanistan.  Exercise MECHANIZED MITHRAS began in Wainwright on April 10th with Calgary Highlanders providing personnel for two platoons drawn from across several 39 and 41 CBG units- a KAF (Kandahar Airfield Force) Protection platoon and a PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) Force Protection platoon.  There are also Calgary Highlanders augmented to a mechanized Company of a battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and in the Operational Reserve with another company of the PPCLI.  The focus of the first few weeks for the KAF and PRT platoons was on individual soldiering skills such as navigation and the fundamentals of fire and movement.  After a lot of hard preparation work over the course of three weeks spent in Wainwright, the exercise moved to Suffield.  There, the KAF and PRT platoons helped to construct and subsequently annihilate live fire ranges at the team, group, section, and platoon levels.  Both platoons performed very well on these unconventional ranges, and gained dynamic training and invaluable experience from the exercise as a whole.  Training now will continue back in Edmonton, with focus for the next few months on activities such as the gunfighter program, first aid, and urban ops.
 

Corporal Dalidowicz, Private Anji Clark, Master Corporal Martin in a laager in Suffield. Click to enlarge.