The Maple Leaf

Army

Task Force 3-10 wraps up Ex MAPLE GUARDIAN

CFB WAINWRIGHT — The CF mission in Afghanistan may be winding down, but for Task Force (TF) 3-10, the work has just begun. Members of 1st Battalion, Royal 22^e Régiment Battle Group, primarily from CFB Valcartier, make up the bulk of TF 3-10. These men and women have been training for more than a year, and Exercise MAPLE GUARDIAN was their last step before deployment.

“I’m impressed not only by the knowledge of our soldiers but also by their self-confidence and their morale,” said Lieutenant-General Marc Lessard, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. “If Canadians as a whole could see them here, they’d be amazed.”

The Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre coordinated the training scenarios based on the Canadian experience in Afghanistan. The exercise the soldiers were thrown into duplicated the terrain in Kandahar province, with its villages, forward operating bases, Afghan culture and various obstacles encountered there. The chain of command was evaluated on the tasks it will have to execute in the field of operations.

“All the assigned training objectives have been achieved,” said Colonel Jean-Marc Lanthier, 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group commander, during the final parade. “You are now ready to carry out the task assigned you.”

Ex MAPLE GUARDIAN, which ran from September 20 to October 3, helped to validate TF 3-10 overall, allowing the different units to work together for the first and last times. It represents a key stage in training and involved more than 2 600 soldiers.

Now that they have finished their collective training, the soldiers are ready for deployment in early November. They will continue their development by putting into practice everything they have learned over recent months.

“That’s why we joined the Canadian Forces,” said Sergeant Rémi Gauthier of the operational mentoring and liaison team with the Afghan police, “to actually do our job, not just for the exercises.”