# Ft. Lewis, Washington State (Pics) Op. Mountain Grizzly



## ninty9 (1 Apr 2004)

Hey guys, before you read on, just wanted to let you know this was originally written up for a non military forum, therefore there is some explanation of things that would be common knowledge to many of you.  I‘m not trying to insult anyone here explaining cap badges ad such, I just don‘t really feel like going back through the whole thing and changng everything.  Enjoy!

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These pictures consist of my recent trip to Ft. Lewis and McChord Air Force Base in Washington State, USA.

The exercise consisted of about 600 Canadian Forces reservists from 41 Canadian Brigade Group, which is the reservist Brigade for the province of Alberta.  We had soldiers from all combat arms and support trades including Infantry, Armour, Engineer, Artillery, Intelligence, Medical, Military Police etc.  I am in the Calgary Highlanders, which is an Infantry unit.


The exercise took place over this past weekend from March 26 - March 28.

We arrived at McChord AFB at about 10:00pm on Friday night.  We immediately went to ground to get some rest.  We slept in an assembly area, which is pretty much a forest that had the trees removed.  It was raining pretty steadily all through out the night.  We didn‘t set up any sort of tents or biv site because we‘d be moving out pretty fast in the morning and it wasn‘t very tactical since an artillery barrage could have wiped out an entire company.   



    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-054-25A..jpg 

This is a picture of some of the guys in my section.  We‘re 11 strong, which is right around where the size of a section should be.  3 sections make a platoon.  Here we are getting out MILES gear all set up.  You can see the little black knobs on the webbing vest and the knobs on the field cap of the guy in the middle.  Those pick up the laser when a shot is fired so you know when you‘ve been hit.  That was also the general area where we slept that night.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-052-24A..jpg 

Ah, yes.  This is me.  Quite a shitty picture is I do say so myself.  I don‘t know if its the cameraman (me), the camera (disposable) or other, but sorry for the blurriness of the exposure.  You can see I've got the very beautiful Olive Drab rain gear on.  I basically wore that all weekend cause the ground was soaked.  You should also notice my bitchin‘ tiger stripe cam paint.  Although I did need some touch ups on my neck.  You can also see the miles gear on my field cap.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-050-23A..jpg 

This is a picture of the Chinook helicopter that took A Company to the main camp.  Too bad the picture is so far away.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-048-22A..jpg 

This is a picture of the camp my section, "support", will be defending.  We‘re support section because normally we‘re the C6 gunners.  The C6 is the equivalent of the M60.  It can be mounted on a bipod for a max range of 800m, tripod for fire up to 1800m or a vehicle.  However, it was decided that support section would play the role of enemy force or "OPFOR" instead.  Which is fine by me because then I don‘t have to lug around a C6 for miles on end.  Anyway, you can see the concertina wire around the camp that the engineers put up before we got there.  The camp itself is basically for communications and intelligence.  It was manned by 6th Intelligence Company out of Edmonton.  normally you would have a platoon size defending this position with out posts and listening posts, however since we were just a section, our main task was to provide security and time so that when an attack came, the 6th Int. guys were able to make last transmissions, and destroy all documents because realistically a Section is not going to hold back a platoon or two of infantry so close in.  In addition the infantry attacking would have air support and artillery as well as engineers and reserves for the attack.

We set up trenches around the wire in about 6 or 7 locations.  Again, I was impossible to cover all angles since we were so spread out, but we did a pretty good job.  We had a contact post out by where those trucks are in some bushes, so they could report if they saw any enemy and challenge those who wish to enter the base.  We also had a roving sentry whose task it was also to spot any enemy.  We were told that an attack would come from the front, (generally from the top of the picture to the camera.  The direction the trucks are facing) so that's where we were looking the entire time.  Our trenches were set up toward the front more than any other area of the camp.  I guess someone screwed up on that one since all attacks came from the opposite direction.  The first attack came at about 4:00pm on Saturday March 27.  We spotted their recce (reconnaissance) patrol of 3 guys so the call goes out across the line to "STAND TO!!".  Everyone goes to their trenches as quickly as possible.  If you‘re not on contact point or sentry, then you‘re just eating or resting until its your turn to go out.  Once were in our respective trenches covering our arcs, GRITS are given to determine where the enemy is.  GRIT stands for Group: Which ever section you‘re talking to, Range: How far the enemy is, Indication: where the enemy is and Type of fire: only the section commander gives this order.  So a grit would be: "Support, 100m, one fist left of center of arcâ ? at that point the section commander would say slow rate or whatever to fire.  Pretty cool stuff.  It really gets your adrenaline going.  We waited for about 15 minutes while the recce element went back and the full platoon came in for the attack.  It was easy to spot them since it was in the day time.  The enemy was 3 platoon A company Calgary Highlanders.  Their about 30 strong and attacked in full force.  However, everyone was using C7 rifles, so there was no machine gun support which is essential in an attack.  They could have mowed us down with a 6 C9's (2 per section) and 1 C6 (1 per platoon) and vice versa.  The defence actually went really well.  We killed every single one of them except for one guy.  They bunched up at times and one part of their line was ahead of the other.  They got in major **** for that.  These guys are really good soldiers, but they ****ed up big time on this attack.  We easily wiped them out.  My MILES gear did not go off during the attack, so I survived.  Good effort all around.  We then went back to patrolling the camp.  It got dark at about 7:30pm and it was very difficult to see.  In addition to that, we had a huge ******* generator powering everything.  It was so friggin noisy we had no chance of hearing anything out in the forest.  A ******* elephant could have walked by and we wouldn't have known.  They attacked again at about 10:30pm.  This time they were ready.  We absolutely got raped.  We had no idea they were there until the first shots went off.  Then came the pyro.  They used explosives to breach the wire around the camp and effectively chucked grenades into our trenches.  We were barley alive long enough to get a mag worth of rounds downrange.    The entire battle lasted 5 minutes.  We were all dead.  

After that, we continued our patrols until 5:30am in which it was time to basically pack everything up and head home.



    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-046-21A..jpg 

Here is a picture of some of the guys of support section.  You can see they gave us some crazy looking camo jackets to wear.  Their actually old garrison dress.  There used to be a combat uniform and a uniform hat you would wear in garrison and a dress uniform.  Now there is only the combat uniform and the dress uniform for special occasions.  That garrison dress is weird because it has grey purple and green camo in it.  You can also see the camp in the background.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-044-20A..jpg 

More support section.  You can see the MILES attachment on the end of the C7 rifle and the green MILES webbing.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-042-19A..jpg 

In this picture, I'm on the right with one of my buddies.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-040-18A..jpg 

This is a picture of the camp near where we stayed the first night.  We're basically returning all the MILES gear and getting our **** together


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## ninty9 (1 Apr 2004)

http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-038-17A..jpg 

From there we went to an assembly area at McChord AFB to wait for our plane back to Calgary.  It's US Air Force rule that you have to be at the base 3 hours before the flight is to leave.  What's funny is when we got there, the first thing we did was turn the TV's on to ESPN.  And guess what was playing... NHL hockey.  That's right.  We watched Chicago VS St. Louis or slept.  It was pretty boring there for 3 hours.  MP's started going through our **** because we weren't allowed to bring back any MRE's or ANYTHING from inside the MRE's.  Nothing at all could go back for some stupid reason.  They checked all carry on bags and one guy in our regiment took a can of beans that was for dinner on the plane, put his underwear inside his carry on bag, and then dumped the beans inside his bag.  He took it up to get checked and he told the person checking that he had an accident.  It was ******* hilarious.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-034-15A..jpg 

this is the tarmac of McChord.  I was the work party which loaded the planes with all of our rucks and weapons, so I was able to get some shots.  Too bad their kind of shitty.  Too far away.  But it was a pretty cool sight.  This one base has more lift capabilities than all of Canada has.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-032-14A..jpg 

I tried to take a picture of the whole long line of us marching to the aircraft to take us home, but as you can see, it didn't work out all that great.  But trust me, that line goes way far down.  Basically 200 troops.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-030-13A..jpg 

This is a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III.  Pretty cool shot.


    http://members.shaw.ca/jpt0/wash/003581-R1-010-3A..jpg 

As a special bonus, I included a picture taken of myself yesterday after out Regimental Birthday.  The Calgary Highlanders are 94 years old this month.  A lot of history.  What i‘m wearing is called a "Glengarrie".  It is part of our dress uniform.

A better picture of it is here:
    http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/uniforms/glen236bn.jpg 

However, that is not our cap badge.  That‘s the 62nd Regiment St. John Fusiliers, but you get the idea.

This is the highlanders cap badge:
    http://members.shaw.ca/calgaryhighlanders/orbad.jpg 

What we normally wear is called a Tam-O-Shanter:

    http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/clartam.jpg 

This is actually a Balmoral, which higher ranks wear.  A TOS is that same except it‘s not slanted.  TOS are worn when not in ful dress uniform.  However in the field, they give way to field caps and helmets.  

I think thats all I have for now.  If you read all that, good for you.  Must have taken you quite a while.  since it took me about an hour and a half to write up.

Airaghardt!


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## Michael Dorosh (1 Apr 2004)

Ninty, I‘d love to put some of that, pictures included, on the regimental website.  If you would like that, shoot me an email at madorosh@shaw.ca and send the article and photos.  I can‘t put the stuff about the MPs, etc., but if you don‘t mind me editing the content and pictures, I‘d be sure to give you credit.  Just a thought.


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## ninty9 (1 Apr 2004)

Michael, absolutley.  I‘m sending you an e mail right now.


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## AlphaCharlie (1 Apr 2004)

that looks like so much fun!

soon... soon...


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## nbk (2 Apr 2004)

Great pics. Looks like you guys had lots of fun.


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## dano (2 Apr 2004)

Awsome pictures. 

Puts a tear in my eye..


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## Fishbone Jones (2 Apr 2004)

nintey9,
I agree. Nice holiday snaps. Now please move them to the the album and put the links in your article. You‘ve been around here long enough to know the policy on pictures. Especially ones that size. Please don‘t make us remove them for you.
Thx


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## ninty9 (2 Apr 2004)

Sorry, didn‘t realize it was going to be a problem.


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## Spr.Earl (2 Apr 2004)

ninety9,thanks for the photos.
So you have a great time in Lewis then?
I noticed that you caught some of the Ant Hills in your photos.   

How much of the training area did you see?


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## ninty9 (2 Apr 2004)

Ft. Lewis was a great ex.

Yeah, those ant hills are HUGE and their everywhere!  I couldn‘t believe it.  Some of them are 2 feet high!

I didn‘t actually see very much of the training area.  We were bussed to our first point, which seemed to be by an ammo lockup or some storage to that effect, and then from there we were trucked toour main camp about 15 minutes away.  Stayed there most of the weekend, and then went back to the main assembly area.

Saw a bit of the actual base while being bussed around, and we got to take a shower and go to the PX, but other than that, thats all I was able to see.

We did notice a pistol/rifle range right off the road that seemed a little out of place, since it wasn‘t out of the way of anything.

All in all, good ex!


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## Spr.Earl (2 Apr 2004)

Good to hear you had a good Ex.

By the way those Ant Hills are protected under the Conservation Laws and just another fact you were in the last of the old growth forests in Western Washington.THe whole base is a conservation area.

I spent many an Ex in Lewis and put many rounds down range there,great training area but Yakima is better but Desert.


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## Korus (3 Apr 2004)

Hah, enemy force wanker     

And Here I am last weekend..

(Before I found that Gun Taping the miles sensors to my webbing stopped it from slipping around so much)

That was definatley a fun ex. I was dismissed around 0400 Monday morning, only to go to class at 0800 the same day. But a bit of coffee and I was wired. Jolly good fun.


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## Spr.Earl (3 Apr 2004)

Any of you learn how cheat the miles?


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## Korus (3 Apr 2004)

It doesn‘t work with the new "MILES 2000" gear we had. The new system requires both a flash and a bang, as opposed to just the bang in the old system.

I tried.. but eventually gave up and settled for using the god gun on unsuspecting people when they went to releive themselves..


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## Spr.Earl (3 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by Korus:
> [qb] It doesn‘t work with the new "MILES 2000" gear we had. The new system requires both a flash and a bang, as opposed to just the bang in the old system.
> 
> I tried.. but eventually gave up and settled for using the god gun on unsuspecting people when they went to releive themselves..        [/qb]


LOL,     
Hint,don‘t need a bang or flash.


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## Korus (3 Apr 2004)

Ah, I thought you were talking about tapping the barrel with a pen.. 

keys?


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## Jason Bourne (4 Apr 2004)

Cool pics


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## Michael Dorosh (7 Apr 2004)

ninty9 - word to the wise; just got a Bravo Zulu to pass on to you from the Acting RSM of 41 Brigade. He saw the article on the regimental website and told me to say "well done" to you.  Thanks again for letting me put it up for others to see.


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## ninty9 (8 Apr 2004)

Michael, thanks for passing that on.  I appreciate it.


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