The Calgary Highlanders will be coming to Turner Valley over the weekend for some training exercises.

Captain Dave Peabody says they're going to be doing what they call "a small party task."

"They've been given a scenario. And within that scenario they have to go and check out all the bridges in the area in order to plan potential operations against an enemy force that would involve those bridges."

"Of course this is all fictional. What they're doing is they're going down to actually look at the land itself, to help them make their decisions for their planning. "Ok, I would put this group of soldiers over here and this group of soldiers over there. The enemy might come from here." All kind of a mental exercise more than anything else."

Peabody says it's valuable to train away from military bases in Wainwright and Suffield.

"We go to (CFB) Wainwright all the time and the soldiers know the area. That ends up diminishing the training value of going to the same place over and over. So it's a better mental exercise for the troops to see new terrain. As well it's an opportunity for us to be seen doing the things that we do."

Peabody says there'll only be a handful of soldiers on site from around 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, October 24.

They will be in uniform, but won't be carrying their rifles or any other firearms.

There should be no traffic disruption and no use of private land and this exercise is in no way related to potential future disaster response or domestic operations activities.

 

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