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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Source: 6thSense
7Mod Oracle.
http://www.modoracle.com/news/Canadi...l?category=all
A cowboy has been teaching soldiers how to look for IEDs hidden in the ground when deployed in Afghanistan.
Professional tracker Terry Grant (52) has been recruited by the British Army to pass on his unique ground sign awareness skills to the soldiers of 7th Armoured Brigade while on Exercise Prairie Thunder 1 in BATUS.
Terry, who is famed for his hit US reality TV show Mantracker in which he tracks contestants over vast swathes of the Canadian wilderness, is training the soldiers to help prepare them for their deployment to Afghanistan next year.
When an IED is laid, the ground is disturbed either by physically digging the device in or by the insurgents leaving tracks as they move around. Ground sign awareness is about recognising these clues and therefore identifying a potential IED location and reducing the risk.
Terry’s show Mantracker sees two contenders take off into the bush with a map, a compass and a head start. They have 36 hours to reach a finish line some 40km away without getting caught – how they escape is up to them. Terry is on horseback, without any navigational aids and doesn’t know their exact start point or finish line. His job is to track them searching the ground for clues before they reach the finish.
Terry, who has spent over 25 years as a cowboy working ranches across Alberta, 12 years as a trained search and rescue volunteer and a lifetime spent honing his skills on hunting trips, jumped at the opportunity to work with the British Forces and trial a new training idea.
He said: “I was asked if I could provide some basic ground and track awareness training. It has been good fun to work with the soldiers. At first they didn’t really get it but as soon as they realised what I was trying to teach, they all picked it up and hopefully learnt something that can help them.
“If only one of these guys takes away what he has been shown today and recognises something out of the ordinary that saves his life, then I have done my job. If he remembers that ‘tracker’ guy stuff then it has been worthwhile.”
Pte Rikkie Jennings, 23, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, who serves with 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment (Staffords), said: “I’ve never done anything like this before and I am sure it will be useful in Afghanistan. It was difficult to see at first but we soon got the hang of it.”
While in previous years British military exercises in Canada have been conducted with a Cold War mentality dealing mainly in conventional heavy artillery warfare, Ex Prairie Thunder has evolved training to focus on hybrid warfare, covering everything from the conventional enemy to counter-insurgency and peace support operations.
Desert Rats Chief of Staff Maj Richard Bell came up with the idea to introduce ground awareness searching techniques into soldiers’ training after watching Mantracker on Canadian television.
The idea is now being reviewed to decide whether it should be developed further.
Source: 6thSense
7Mod Oracle.
http://www.modoracle.com/news/Canadi...l?category=all
A cowboy has been teaching soldiers how to look for IEDs hidden in the ground when deployed in Afghanistan.
Professional tracker Terry Grant (52) has been recruited by the British Army to pass on his unique ground sign awareness skills to the soldiers of 7th Armoured Brigade while on Exercise Prairie Thunder 1 in BATUS.
Terry, who is famed for his hit US reality TV show Mantracker in which he tracks contestants over vast swathes of the Canadian wilderness, is training the soldiers to help prepare them for their deployment to Afghanistan next year.
When an IED is laid, the ground is disturbed either by physically digging the device in or by the insurgents leaving tracks as they move around. Ground sign awareness is about recognising these clues and therefore identifying a potential IED location and reducing the risk.
Terry’s show Mantracker sees two contenders take off into the bush with a map, a compass and a head start. They have 36 hours to reach a finish line some 40km away without getting caught – how they escape is up to them. Terry is on horseback, without any navigational aids and doesn’t know their exact start point or finish line. His job is to track them searching the ground for clues before they reach the finish.
Terry, who has spent over 25 years as a cowboy working ranches across Alberta, 12 years as a trained search and rescue volunteer and a lifetime spent honing his skills on hunting trips, jumped at the opportunity to work with the British Forces and trial a new training idea.
He said: “I was asked if I could provide some basic ground and track awareness training. It has been good fun to work with the soldiers. At first they didn’t really get it but as soon as they realised what I was trying to teach, they all picked it up and hopefully learnt something that can help them.
“If only one of these guys takes away what he has been shown today and recognises something out of the ordinary that saves his life, then I have done my job. If he remembers that ‘tracker’ guy stuff then it has been worthwhile.”
Pte Rikkie Jennings, 23, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, who serves with 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment (Staffords), said: “I’ve never done anything like this before and I am sure it will be useful in Afghanistan. It was difficult to see at first but we soon got the hang of it.”
While in previous years British military exercises in Canada have been conducted with a Cold War mentality dealing mainly in conventional heavy artillery warfare, Ex Prairie Thunder has evolved training to focus on hybrid warfare, covering everything from the conventional enemy to counter-insurgency and peace support operations.
Desert Rats Chief of Staff Maj Richard Bell came up with the idea to introduce ground awareness searching techniques into soldiers’ training after watching Mantracker on Canadian television.
The idea is now being reviewed to decide whether it should be developed further.
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