Hook up! Check static line! Check your equipment! Thirty-seven voices roar out the responses as the men carry out the actions. Winds are one knot loadmaster Sgt. Andy Robicheau announces. Shouts of approval and relief greet his words. Even more shouts erupt as the Hercules ramp yawns open poising six toboggans for the drop to the ground below.
Six minutes! Slow down! The jumpmasters, Sgt. Dennis Williams and MCpl Sven Bolke, move along the twin lines of troopers making a final check on equipment and people. Hands gripping static lines just below the metal snap fasteners, the jumpers stare at the red jump light.
Sound off for equipment check!. As the last man confirms he is okay, the loadmasters yank open the doors and push out the jump steps. All right! Airborne! greets this move. Stand by! The number one in each stick takes up position in the open doorways.
Suddenly the green jump light is on. With a whoosh the wedge load of six toboggans drops off the ramp. A pat on the shoulder and the command go sends the first jumpers out. Within seconds, half the stick has hurled itself through the doors. One after the other, the heavily-laden soldiers shuffle to the door and leap.
If anyone shouts Geronimo or any other Hollywood-type remark it is lost in the slipstream. Everyone is too busy shuffling themselves and more than 60 kg of individual equipment along the aircraft and making a good exit to worry about theatrics.
In less than 20 seconds, the last men, the two jumpmasters, have cleared the aircraft. Only the loadmasters struggling in the doorways with the parachute deployment bags remain. The troops have been dropped and Exercise Polar Gloom, a raid on a radar station, is well underway.
Designed jointly by the Airborne Headquarters and Signal Squadron of the Canadian Airborne Regiment and CFS Sioux Lookout, the exercise provided realistic training for both units. The Airborne troopers who included radio operators, linemen, military-policemen, admin clerks, medics and comm techs, in addition to six genuine infantrymen, practiced winter jumps with full equipment, infantry patrolling, combat techniques and winter field living skills.
The same was true of the drivers, clerks and techs of Sioux Lookouts base defence force. Using the Airborne soldiers as live training aids, they were able to practice BDF drills, tactics and staying power against a realistic enemy. As well, Polar Gloom allowed the station commander, Major Ian Snow, an air navigator, to practice a complete nuclear scenario with the remainder of his people. Something we dont get to do often enough in a normal exercise says Major Snow.
As he watched Captain Doug Wakefield lead his paratroopers off the drop zone, Major Snow did have a few second thoughts, though. After all, everyone has heard Airborne stories and these young men passing by did look as experienced and tough as the legends suggested. Would his station survive their visit?
Five days later, Major Snow had his answer. Several days of winter tenting and constant patrolling by the Airborne troopers had ended in three gut-wrenching and sweat-soaked attacks over Sioux Lookouts steep slopes. And the station still stood despite the thousands of rounds of blank ammunition, smoke pots, tear gas, arty simulators and thunderflashes that had exploded around it. Moreover, both sides now had a certain respect for one another and each had learned some valuable lessons.
Lt. Marty Galvin, the stations air weapons controller, for example, could attest to the efficiency of the Airborne as hostage takers. Steward MCpl Lucien Leroux and his fellow sentry Pte Kim MacDougall, a radar tech, were equally impressed with Airborne MP, Sgt. Yves Cormiers ability to take out a sentry post - quickly and sneakily. As supply tech Cpl. Pat Leclair said, "I've learned one thing on this exercise and that's not to trust the Airborne."
Cpl. Hector Voyer and Trooper Carl Deroche, infantrymen in the Airborne recce platoon, learned something too. Their objective, the ground-to-air receiver and transmitter site had been made almost unapproachable by the ingenuity of technicians like Pte Bob Graham and his fellow defenders who set out a series of microphones on the surrounding terrain to pick up the Airborne movements.
The sound equipment was a real surprise to us says Tpr Deroche, They could hear us coming a long way off. We didnt have a chance of getting to them. Cpl. Voyer was equally impressed. I didnt even know they had a security force like that. They are good. When we go up against infantry we expect hard opposition. We were surprised by the strength of the air force defence force.
Cpl. Andre Brule, another of the Airborne MPs, enjoyed the chance to be an attacker. Up to then he had always been a defender. He too was impressed with the station' defences. He also learned the value of proper co-ordination. He stole a snowmobile and drove unscathed through the BDF defences right up to the door of the operations centre. There, unfortunately, he was shot by two of his fellow attackers from another section, just as he was about to blow in the vital door. A short sharp conversation between the three teammates established the need for better co-ordination.
But, in fact, the fighting lasted only for the first three days. After that, it was time for getting acquainted and learning about each other. The paratroopers toured the station and the BDF received riot control training from Captain Dan Drew of the Airborne Regiment. The station hockey team won a well-played game and both sides enjoyed two lively and well spiced happy hours. A sports days honors were split evenly - the Airborne winning at basketball and volleyball while Sioux Lookout conquered floor hockey and ice fishing. Everyone enjoyed Airborne rad op Cpl. Amibal Lopes unarmed combat team demonstration.
It was a good exercise said WO Andy Murdoch, the Airborne squadron sergeant-major. As signalers, were not experts at this job but neither were they. We won because everyone learned some new lessons and relearned some old ones. Maybe thats what this type of exercise is all about.
--This article was printed in the Sentinel Magazine - 1983/2 and was donated by Tom Page for insertion into the Pinetree Line web site.
