Operation Spring Fix 19

Operation Spring Fix 19 (OSF19) officially began on the evening of Friday, May 24.  Cadets, Rangers, Hired Drivers, and I assembled on the ice in front of the Northern Store to pack the qamutiks (sleds) with corps equipment & personal gear.  The time was 6pm.  (Yes, there still is snow & ice in late May.  Snow on the land melts first and is mostly gone by early June.  The ice doesn’t disappear until the beginning of July.) 

            

To our new blog readers, OSF is an annual weekend field training exercise (FTX) where cadets use the knowledge & skills they learn in the classroom out on the land.  It’s the cadet program’s equivalent of a school field trip.  (3045 holds another FTX in the middle of September).  Twelve cadets attended OSF19.

            

Preparations for the FTX began two weeks before May 24.  The cadets had to put their issued sleeping bags together, check the tents & Coleman stoves to see if they worked properly, and pack their own kit.  (Kit is military slang for “your stuff”).  I had to coordinate with the Rangers on where to go and what to do when we got there.  The corps needs at least one Ranger for polar bear protection but I was able to get two for this trip.  Frank hired two former cadets to be drivers and found two qamutiks for them to pull.  More qamutiks mean more space to haul equipment and kit.

            

Levasseur Inlet.

The Rangers and I selected Levasseur Inlet, 51km south of Arctic Bay.  The last time the corps was there was in May 2016 during OSF16.  We held a bonfire there but actually camped at Ijuyuarjuk.  Going further back into the past, I visited the Inlet for the first time in 2015 when I was looking for places for OSF15.  This would be my first time camping in Levasseur Inlet with the cadets.  The Rangers and I also agreed on a date to buy gas for the trip.  We would need quite a bit to get there & back, as well as some for seal hunting on Saturday.

            

A Ranger's skidoo. Yes, it works.

It took an hour to pack the qamutiks.  I let the Rangers direct the cadets on how to pack the sleds; it’s like playing a game of Tetris.  My observations have shown me that there are a few rules that should/must be followed.  One of the most important rules is gas cans are tied down at the back of the qamutiks and no food should be near them.  The cadets reminded me to check that we had the 3 Essentials: toilet paper, garbage bags, and scissors.  We did pack them.

          

The Before Photograph.

At 7pm, the senior cadet formed up the cadets for roll call.  Once the attendance was taken, I stood next to the platoon and a Ranger took a photo.  This would be the Before picture.  The After picture would be taken on Sunday afternoon.

            

A Ranger led the convoy.  We followed an established trail that cuts across Adams Sound and curves around Cape Cunnigham.  The ice is a little bumpy but that is to be expected.  The convoy moved at 50km/h.  We rounded the cape, entered Admiralty Inlet and continued driving south.  The sun shined brightly in the sky; the land of the midnight sun.  We passed a family that was driving in the opposite direction and pulling a large wooden cabin.  They were coming back from a fishing trip.

            

We arrived at The Crack at 9pm.  The Crack is located about 47km south of Arctic Bay and is a well-known place where the ice breaks up and reveals open water.  The Crack widens with every passing day until it’s completely replaced by open water in July.  At this time, it was less than a metre wide.  The Crack probably stretches the entire length of Admiralty Inlet.  I haven’t found the time to drive across the inlet, a distance of 29km to check.  The Crack is also the place where many travellers stop for a tea break.  The convoy crossed The Crack and stopped.  Snacks and rations were brought out for everyone.  I used the opportunity to refuel my skidoo and take pictures.

            

We kept driving but had to stop a few times because one of the Ranger’s skidoos kept overheating.  He drove his machine through a large puddle of water to cool it down.  The action seemed to work.  We entered Levasseur Inlet not long after.  We drove closer to the left side and avoided several large cracks and puddles along the way.  The convoy drove off the ice and stopped near a small hill.  We found rocks arranged in circles, showing us where previous tents had been pitched.  We would use the same area & rocks for our camp.

            

We immediately got to work setting up camp.  The camp had to be organized according to “military rules”: male cadets on one side and female cadets on the other side.  My tent would be in the middle and store all the food.  It would also serve as the headquarters, mess hall, and classroom.  The Rangers brought their own tent and placed it on the males’ side.  The skidoos and qamutiks were used to collect large rocks that would be used to hold down the tent flaps.  Once the tents were up, everyone moved their personal kit inside.

            

The camp was ready by 11:30pm.  The sun was still shining in the sky but as if it was stuck in a persistent dusk.  The cadets and Rangers were rewarded with granola bars and juice boxes.  The two former cadets bid us farewell and drove back to Arctic Bay.  They would return on Sunday.  The cadets were formed up and I gave a quick briefing on what to expect on Saturday.  I dismissed everyone to their tents.

            

Reveille was at 9am on Saturday, May 25.  It would have been earlier, but it took us longer to get the camp ready so I let the cadets sleep in.  Everyone was up by 9:30am.  The senior cadets lit the Coleman stoves in my tent and began boiling water.  Suddenly, a Ranger informed us that a baby seal was sunbathing really close to the camp.  We all went outside and watched the Ranger calmly walk towards the seal with his rifle.  He sat down and took a shot.  He missed.  Surprisingly, the seal didn’t move.  The second Ranger, Kurri, took over and managed to shoot the baby seal.  The seal limped into a large pool of water and disappeared.  He shouted to us to bring him his niksik and then ran to the pool of water.  A cadet grabbed the long wooden stick with the attached metal hook and I started my skidoo.  We quickly drove over to where Kurri was kneeling.  We could see blood in the water.  He tried to find the baby seal and hook it but we were too late.  The seal had sunk to the bottom.  We drove back to camp for breakfast.

            

MREs being cooked.

Breakfast consisted of American Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs).  Canadian-made Individual Meal Packages (IMPs) are reserved for the Canadian Armed Forces.  The cadets chose their main meals, labelled them with black Sharpie markers, and placed them in the boiling water.  The one meal that nobody eats is Apple Maple Oats.  I tried it once so long ago that I can’t remember what it looks like.  I think it’s oatmeal and it tastes awful.  It takes about 10 – 15 minutes to cook an MRE meal.

            

I examined and photographed the new .308 rifles the Rangers recently received.  The single bolt action rifle looks nice, is fully painted, and displays the Rangers logo on the stock.  The accompanying red rifle bag also sports the Rangers logo.  The contractor did a really good job in designing and constructing the rifles.  I asked Ranger Kurri if the .308 performs well and he said it does.  The Rangers have the option of keeping the old .303 Lee Enfield rifles but they have to pay the government $1 per rifle.

            

A senior cadet poses for a photograph.

OSF19 Campsite.

I taught a few classes after breakfast.  These were: radio communication procedures, the phonetic alphabet, and assembling a survival kit.  The cadets’ favourite lesson was the first one because they got to play with walkie-talkies.

            

The cadets were given time to rest before and after lunch.  Several cadets napped in their tents, others played sports, and a few hiked up a nearby hill.  The lunch MREs taste better than the breakfast ones for some reason.

            

Inuksuk on a hill.

Seal hole.

The Rangers took everyone seal hunting at 1:45pm.  We took three qamutiks and skidoos, just in case we caught a lot of seals.  The cadets made sure the qamutiks were packed with snacks, juice boxes, garbage bags, and toilet paper.  I used my GPS to track the hunting route.  We mostly stayed in the inlet, searching two areas: one close to the camp and one just outside the inlet.  We found many seal holes and let the cadets wait by them with niksiks, but, unfortunately, no seals emerged.  While driving, a seal would be spotted, we’d drive closer, a Ranger would take aim, and the seal would disappear down a hole before a shot could be fired.  It’s like that sometimes.  In total, we drove a distance of 21.5km over a span of 3 hours.  We returned to the campsite. 

            

The Rangers and I took the cadets on a walk inland after dinner.  We were going to find a fishing lake.  We drove as far inland as we could until there was no snow.  Then we walked, navigating large pools of water and snow.  The snow looked shallow but was actually deep.  Many of us got snow in our boots.  I brought a soccer ball for the cadets to kick around so they wouldn’t get bored.  We got to the edge of the fishing lake in 30 minutes.  We didn’t actually fish but at least we knew such a place existed if we chose to return next year.  We walked back to where we left the skidoos & qamutiks and returned to camp.

           

The weather turned on Sunday, May 26.  There was wind; strong enough to lift the tent flaps if they weren’t held down by rocks.  I had to send a few cadets to find more rocks to hold my tent down.  The additional rocks made it easier for the cadets to concentrate on preparing breakfast.  I reviewed the lessons I taught yesterday and quizzed the cadets to make sure they remembered the information.

            

The Hired Drivers from Friday arrived at 11am.  I got the cadets working on tearing down the camp.  Everything had to be brought outside from the tents first before the tents could be taken down.  Once the tents were down, they had to be folded a certain a way and then placed in bags.  We moved on to organizing and packing all the gear onto the qamutiks.  The last thing the cadets had to do was a garbage sweep of the area.  When they were done, the only proof that we were here were the rocks sitting in circles.  I did a quick roll call and debriefing of the trip.  To make a long story short, everyone had a good time.  The cadets were instructed to get on the qamutiks.  We left Levasseur Inlet.

            

We mostly followed the same route home.  There were a few times we went off course because we saw seals sunbathing and wanted to catch them.  We weren’t successful.  I had to stop a few times because the qamutik rope attached to my skidoo kept coming loose.  I was glad I had rear-view mirrors, otherwise I would have driven long distance without pulling anything.  We stopped twice for tea and to refuel our skidoos.  We arrived in Arctic Bay at 3:30pm.

            

The After Photograph.

Frank had two of his pickup trucks waiting for us in front of the Northern Store.  We packed one with corps equipment while the other was loaded with personal kit.  Several parents arrived to take their cadets home.  A Ranger took the After photograph just before I dismissed everyone for the day.  As you can see from the photograph, we all got tans over the weekend.

            

Two senior cadets assisted me in transporting all the corps equipment back to Frank’s Shop.  (Frank drove the second truck and delivered the personal kit).  Most of the camping equipment went into a large sea container but the leftover MREs and tents were placed inside Frank’s Shop.  I drove the seniors home when we were done.