As you can see, our training has taken on a different look. We arrived earlier this week at CFB Kingston for the Individual Pre-Deployment Training course at the Peace Support Training Centre. The school is part of the Canadian Forces Centre of Excellence for Peace Support Operations Training (http://armyapp.forces.gc.ca/pstc-cfsp/ipt_e.asp). We joined approximately 25 members of the CF who are also taking this course. The soldiers come from all three branches of the CF, are of different ranks and trades and come from all parts of Canada. Most of these CF members will be coming to Afghanistan but some will be going to Bosnia, Sudan, and other places. The two groups got along well from the beginning and camaraderie and morale is high within the class. Our instructors are supremely qualified and many have been on multiple tours in Afghanistan. They are very professional and eager to teach us what they know.
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday learning and qualifying on the C-7. It is essentially the same carbine that most police services issue to their Tactical Teams and carbine operators. Its been 10 years since I trained on one but things came back quickly enough.
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The weather was perfect and gave us a good taste of what we can expect in the deserts of Afghanistan!
In this photo we are qualifying in the prone position from 200m. The woman in the yellow snow pants is a civilian 'war artist' commissioned by the government who will be going to the Sudan. The middle photo shows us qualifying at 100m. We came back later that evening for a night shoot from 50m. Believe it or not it was actually warmer in the evening.
Thanks for checking in and feel free to share the link with family and friends.
Ken.
