[maple_leaf_eh]

The British Army calls their exercises in Suffield Medicine Man. From the accounts I've read, the units get a lot out of their exposure to big open terrain, live fire exercises and relatively few restrictions. Not like Salisbury Plain, where every second grid square has a medieval village or semi-endangered gorse bush. Not saying these things don't deserve full protection, but when the troops are learning how to fight big manoever elements, having to read the ROEs continuously get in the way.

One book I read recently was by the former CO of the Irish Rifles. He got his name in the news later in Iraq for belittling a boorish US Army Reservist and for fist fighting with an Iraqi insurgent. The CO duking it out with a bad guy! The thread of the book was how the battalions were on a constant rotation of garrison, overseas training and operations. A twenty year career in a line infantry unit might have had 2 or 3 Northern Ireland tours, adventurous training every 2 or 3 years in some place really exciting, and since 2002-3 predictable tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It used to be common to see trains of BATUS vehicles on the Prairies. During the height of the Mad Cow disease crisis, a shipload of vehicles was quarantined in Montreal because there was UK mud on them. Just when Canada was trying to get rid of one disease in our beef producing regions, another one almost slipped in.