Thursday, November 10, 2005

Capture The Flag

While our military may suffer from neglect, indifference, or even outright hostility from its political masters, let it not be said that it has failed to answer the call of duty:

Canadian soldiers captured two Danish flags during their recent mission to Hans Island as a demonstration of Canada's sovereignty over the barren Arctic rock, according to previously classified military documents.

The flags were first taken to a Canadian military base in Yellowknife and then at least one of them was hand-delivered to Denmark's ambassador in Ottawa three weeks later. The next day, the ambassador personally repatriated it to Copenhagen, according to Danish officials.


....

The July 13 mission, code-named Exercise Frozen Beaver in previous military documents but referred to as Operation Sovereign Inukshuk in the most recent release, was the Canadian Forces' first visit to the island.

The soldiers raised a metal Canadian flag and built an Inukshuk, a traditional Inuit marker.

Members of the Canadian Rangers, a largely aboriginal military unit, on the mission were armed with simple rifles and 20 rounds of ammunition each, according to the mission's operational orders.


Which namby-pamby in Ottawa got offended by the mention of frozen beaver? Probably the same folks who got upset at the mention of Typhoon Longwang.

Source: National Post

2 comments:

Dorionhawk said...

Here we go again, our well trained Northern Rangers sent on a mission carrying old 303's left over from WW2.
When will these Liberals get collective heads out of their asses and better equip these Brave Inuit who deserve top of the line since they are our only line of defence up North.
This is also a publicity stunt, like two teams playing laser tag with the opposing team not showing up.

Lord Kitchener's Own said...

Not to be naive, but is it possible that the reason the Rangers use what some might consider "antiquated" rifles is because when you're that far North you need a gun that you know is going to fire no matter what, under any conditions, and that therefore experts working North of 60 might use a gun from WWII precisely BECAUSE it's from WWII and still fires? I mean, sure, I can put dozens of rounds into a caribou with the latest assault rifle, but if it jams in the freezing temperatures, I might wish for a 303 that can actually fire.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not going to jump to the conclusion that the equipment the Rangers are using is the wrong equipment, just because it doesn't sound all shiny and new. Personally, I have no idea what weapons work in the acrtic and which don't but if you could enlighten me dorionhawk I'd be interested to learn.