Morning reveille was at 0800 hours. As I slowly emerged from the warm comforts of
my two sleeping bags, I noticed the arctic wind being a lot stronger than the
day before. The green arctic tent shook
with every passing gust while I crawled into my boots, parka, and snow
pants. Sounds like today is going to be a breeze, I quietly remarked. When I stood outside the tent, I noticed the
wind wasn't actually as strong as I was led to believe. However, there were a few occasions when I had to pull over my hood.
I
went into the large McPherson tent after returning from the designated male
washroom (an open space behind a snow bank).
The CO was inside watching the Coleman stoves melt snow collected from
outside. The male cadets had pushed
their sleeping bags and duffel bags to the sides of the tent to make room for
the stoves and cadets who would be eating breakfast. The CO instructed me to head outside and open
the MRE boxes and select enough breakfast meals for everyone. He also told me to make a mental note to
bring another white McPherson tent next time so that a male tent wouldn't have
to double as a mess area.
 |
| Eating breakfast with my hood up. |
American
Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) are similar to Canadian Individual Meal Packages
(IMPs), but they are not labeled nor categorized as breakfast, lunch, or dinner
when packaged in large boxes. It is up
to the consumer to decide which meals should be eaten at a certain mealtime. After examining the MRE menus online, I don't
think there's one meal that can be eaten at all three mealtimes. Thankfully, IMPs do not have this problem and
the meals are designated breakfast, lunch, or dinner. That's another reason why I prefer IMPs -
there's more structure.
 |
| Eating breakfast with my hood down. |
A
few cadets assisted me in finding enough "breakfast friendly" MREs. We brought them to the white tent, removed
the main course packages from their cardboard wrappings, and placed them in the
pots of boiling water. Everyone got a
meal package that contained a side dish, dessert, crackers, bread, spread of
some kind, powdered beverage, spoon, and an accessory pack. When all the cooked meals were distributed,
breakfast began. I ate my meal outside because they were too many people in the tent. I felt like a true arctic explorer, eating
with the wind blowing in my face. I
forgot what I had but it was filling enough to hold me until lunch. Everyone cleaned up, placing garbage in
garbage bags, and putting unopened MRE packages into a box.
Before
we left for Qajuutinnguat on Friday, the cadets had been organized into two
training groups, making it possible to have two classes running simultaneously
on Saturday (May 24). For the morning,
one group would stay in camp and learn orienteering with the Commanding Officer
(CO) and the other would go ice fishing/jigging with the Rangers. The groups would switch halfway.
My
group & the Rangers went to the nearby fishing lake the cadets explored
from the cliffs the night before. There barely was any wind because of the cliffs surrounding the lake. This was my first time ice fishing in the arctic. The Rangers used their skidoo to bring all
the necessary equipment: drill, shovel, fishing lines, jigging sticks, and mats
to sits on. The Rangers drilled several
holes into the thick ice allowing several people to jig at once. Jigging, as it is known in the north,
involves catching fish using a fishing line attached to a short stick. There is a lure attached to the line. You lower it down the hole and wait for a
fish to bite it. When you get one, you
quickly pull the line up so that the fish doesn't escape.
 |
| I unsuccessfully try to catch a fish with the help of a cadet. |
I
gave it my best shot but I didn't catch a single fish. Luck was with everyone else and I think my
group caught around six. Even
though I didn't catch anything, it was still fun looking down the hole and
trying to spot small forms of life frolicking beneath the thick ice.
 |
| Adrian. May 2014. |
Before my group headed back to camp
for the orienteering lesson, we found some small rocks on the ground and wrote
our names on the cliff face behind the lake.
I wrote my name in Inuktitut.
The wind was still strong, but not fierce, as the CO instructed my group in the McPherson tent. While he taught orienteering and map
& compass, I stood outside drinking hot chocolate and keeping an eye out
for aggressive wildlife.
When the other group came back with
the Rangers, we melted ice using the Coleman stoves and broke out the lunch
rations. My lunch was a chicken meal of
some kind.
After lunch, the corps assembled around
a tall rock spire for a group photo. Our
affiliated unit, the Royal Canadian Regiment, wanted a few pictures showing the
cadets out on the land. I acted as the
photographer and took several pictures, hoping that at least one was the
perfect shot. I would review the
photographs after the FTX and email the best one down south.
 |
| Frozen waterfall. |
The RCMP arrived some time later to
teach survival skills.
Since both of the town's officers were present, I humourously asked them
if the town would descend into anarchy.
They replied that that was really unlikely and if there were any
problems, they would be contacted on their SAT phone. They were only staying for two hours. Their lesson lasted a good 90 minutes and
included a Q&A session.
I taught the next class which
centered on the use of handheld GPS devices.
I'm not a GPS expert but I know enough to teach the basics (menu
selection, compass use & calibration, creating & selecting waypoints, finding locations, etc). If I got stumped by a question or an
unfamiliar function, I could refer to the binder I brought that contained all
the GPS lesson plans in the Silver Star training manual. My lesson was okay but the only problem was
that twelve cadets had to share four Garmin handhelds. I made a mental note to speak to the CO after
the FTX about getting funding to buy a few more handhelds.
The cadets were granted a period of free
time after dinner. (My dinner was another
chicken meal of some kind). The cadets
just had to stay within the boundaries.
At 2000hrs, everyone headed over to the western side of the camp for the evening bonfire. On the last day of August last year, the corps cleaned up the shoreline behind the airport, picking
up trash and collecting large discarded pieces of wood. We held a bonfire at the site in mid-October, but there was still plenty of leftover wood. The CO had decided to burn the remaining wood
during the Spring Fix FTX and brought it over a few days earlier using a skidoo
and qamutik. He picked a spot where the
wind wouldn't be a problem.
 |
| Ranger Napassi takes aim. |
As we headed to the bonfire site
with coolers full of marshmallows and hot dogs, the cadets spotted a snow goose
walking around. They called over Ranger
Napassi who was walking with her .303 rifle.
She had never hunted a snow goose before and decided this one would be
her first. She and a few male cadets
quietly crawled closer to the snow goose as we all crouched and waited in
silence. It took me several minutes to
spot the goose and take a picture.
Napassi got on top of a small hill, laid in the prone position, and fired
a shot. Unfortunately, the bullet missed
but the goose landed several feet away from where it stood. Napassi took two more shots but was
unsuccessful. You can't win them
all. As the goose flew high into the
sky, we continued on towards the bonfire site.
Upon arrival, the cadets began
taking pieces of discarded wood and assembling it into a pile. Ranger Napassi and a few cadets left the
group to hunt the snow goose that surprisingly came back. "I think that goose is taunting
her," I remarked to the CO. Using
some fuel, we got the fire going and it slowly grew into a large bonfire. As gunshots echoed in the distance, we all
huddled around the fire for warmth and to roast hotdogs &
marshmallows. I sat down with my boots
pointed towards the fire and took pictures of the flames and glowing embers. I roasted a few tasty hot dogs and marshmallows
using my machete.
Ranger Napassi returned with a big
smile on her face. She finally managed
to shoot the snow goose. Flanked by her
mentors, she prominently held the goose in her right hand and displayed it for
everyone to see. The final bullet had penetrated
the goose's main body. It would have taken
me many more bullets to score a kill shot.
The goose would later be skinned and the meat eaten. I'm not sure what would we done with the
feathers.
The bonfire was extinguished at
2200hrs using large amounts of snow. We
returned to camp with the coolers & shovel, and got ready for bed. Lights out was at 2300hrs. As I settled into my sleeping bags for the
second night, I concluded that the training day went very well.
The wind continued to blow against the tent, causing it to flap, but somehow, I fell asleep.
To
be continued . . .
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