Canadian Bombardier Iltis "96A"

[Stuart Fedak]

Text removed as information is no longer current

[maple_leaf_eh]

Nine Six Alpha

[Ed Storey]

96A is a fixed Call Sign. No secret decoder ring required although a good working knowledge of the organization of a Canadian Infantry Battalion or any of the other units within a Canadian Brigade will reveal the vehicle's placement within these formations.

Remember, some of these vehicles bounced around between different units and deployments, so the remains of fixed call sign could be only one piece to a vehicle's history.

Much like genealogy, the research into the service use of these vehicles involves more then just one simple email for information.

[rob love]

Simple answer is the 96A is the callsign of one of the MP (or RP) dets. So the callsign matches the vehicle's Military police configuration.

[Michael R.]

Stuart,
perhaps pronounced as 'NINer-six-alpha', . . . without the use of ten signals, aka ten codes.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

I am cutting off the front fenders of a 1985 Canadian Bombardier Iltis ...
So my question is what would the 96A indicate?

Cheers!

Stuart

According to the big book of Radiotelephone Procedure for the Canadian Forces, 96A is not an MP callsign. Niner is reserved for command and staff. Six is reserved for the signals officer. Alpha typically is the first assigned call sign in a group.

If there was to be a fortuitous find for you and your interests, 96A would be the one!

[super dave]

I had one here with the same call sign.

[rob love]

What is the tac sign on the Iltis Dave? Infantry or armoured? I am pretty sure that in my grey matter the memory says 96A is meathead. It certainly is in the armoured corp, and I am pretty sure it was in the 2VP as well.

[super dave]

Sorry no tac sign on that unit.

[super dave]

If you ever need the whole complete front fender I have a few left

[rob love]

It is one thing to purchase replacement fenders etc for a SMP vehicle that is in use all over the world like the M35 (MLVW) but when were the last country in the world to manufacture a vehicle, then you better be buying a lifetime supply of body parts unless you are OK with spending a fortune hacing a contractor make the dies and forms to manufacture them new every 3 or 5 years.

While in some cases the DND will make it's buys based on useage, in others it will be a lifetime buy.

As to not replacing major body panels, there is a big difference between owning one or two, and trying to maintain an aging fleet of vehicles that were driven to their physical limits every time they would go to the field. There were around 60 Iltis in Shilo alone. Multiply that by 2 fenders per truck, and you could have a body man doing nothing but fenders for a year. Patch and play was the norm for the Iltis, as it was for the older M38A1 fleet.

[super dave]

That was only one load Stuart, If I remember right there were about 300 total and here was how some were stacked in the warehouse .