WEBVTT

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More than 100 Canadian Army
Reservists recently gathered

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at 4th Canadian Division
Training Centre

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near Meaford, Ontario
for exercise Highland Bomber II.

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Today we're joined by the unit
Operations Officer

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and key planner
of this joint exercise,

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Captain Rhys Stevenson

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of the Royal Highland Fusiliers
of Canada, to tell us more.

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Thanks for joining us today,
Captain Stevenson.

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I want to start out by asking

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what did this training focus on
and what made it stand out

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from regular reservist
training events?

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Well this particular exercise is
actually a series of exercises

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whereby we synchronize our
collective training schedules

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between combat units,
combat support units,

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and combat service
support units.

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As you can imagine this required

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a whole lot of planning
an effort

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and involved a lot
more moving parts

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than what would normally be
expected from a Reserve exercise

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from just one single unit.

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On this exercise we actually had
5 Reserve units from 31 Brigade.

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They were all working together

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to achieve their annual
training objectives,

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but also collectively working
together to achieve

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a much higher level

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than what was expected
from our commanders.

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What are some of the benefits

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of having these different
units working together

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for combined training like this?

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The benefits from conducting
training like this stem

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from trying to tackle
the problems associated

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with P Res training.

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One of the problems we have is
not having the right people

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on the right exercises
and what we've done

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in synchronizing our training

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is trying to enable these people
to be on collective exercises

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and having engaging training
for those individuals.

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At the same time,
having enough people available

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to do the background,
catch-up training such that,

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at the end of
our collective training

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all units are able
to participate

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because enough people have
attended collective exercises

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and achieved
their threshold training.

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What's the likelihood
of these units training

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and working together
again in the future?

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It's very probable,
in that we're currently planning

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with the same units
and possibly some other units

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in our operational plan
for next year.

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In that, we hope to garner
a lot of the efficiencies

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and continue this momentum
that we have

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as well as trying to fix some
of the problems we've addressed

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through
our after-action reviews.

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Anything you'd like to add?

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Yes, I'd like to thank
the Grey & Simcoe Foresters,

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11 Field Artillery,
31 Service Battalion,

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and 23 Field Ambulance
for their participation

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on all of these exercises.

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We would not have been able
to do it

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without their participation
and support.

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Thank you very much to them.

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Thanks for joining us today,
Captain Stevenson.

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Thanks very much for having me.

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♪