Canadian and American soldiers joined forces for a two-week, swift-water training exercise on the Fraser River in Chilliwack.
Called Exercise Cougar Castle, the fast-water bridging training saw about 30 Canadian Army Reserve personnel from the 39 Combat Engineer Regiment (39 CER) and 60 members of the U.S. Army at Island 22 from Sept. 8 to 21.
Similar to another operation dubbed Exercise Paladin Response which happens at Cultus Lake nearly every winter, the focus of Exercise Cougar Castle is to build a floating raft (floating bridge) directly on the water that is strong enough to carry a tank from one side of the river to the other.
The bridges are used not only in combat to transport troops and military vehicles, but also to bridge land gaps and move civilians over bodies of water during domestic operations such as earthquakes, fires and floods.
For training, the raft is made up of six pieces: four flat sections, plus a ramp on either end for a total length of about 170 feet. Each section, which is folded up like an accordion, is transported to the water by truck and then released from the shore into the water where it automatically opens up within seconds.
The sections are released one at a time, and boats are used to move or hold the pieces in place in order to connect them together.
It's a challenging spot to train because of the current, but that's exactly why they want to train on the mighty Fraser River.
"The whole reason why we shifted to here is now you're dealing with that river condition," said Capt. Kurt Murseli with 39 CER. "If you go on Cultus Lake, the wind picks up and you have to deal with that, but you're not really dealing with the current… it adds the complexities in river-crossing especially."
Sgt. Michael Popescu with the U.S. Army explained how different it is to assemble the floating bridge on a river as opposed to a lake.
"It's going to be pretty different in terms of dropping the loads into the water. The boat crews have to really be on their game to actually catch that, because as soon as it's touching the water, it's starting going down the current."
But in the first week on the water, they were met with another challenge – the river was too low to drop the raft sections in, plus there was an underwater gravel bar just off the shore. Crews were hoping for rain over the weekend and into their second week as they need the river to be at least one to two feet higher in order to drop the raft pieces in.
Despite the fact that by Sept. 12 they had not yet assembled a raft on the Fraser River, the training was still a big advantage, said American Lieut. Mike Jurczak.
"(It's) incredibly helpful still. This is huge for them just to be able to train loading and offloading (the boats)."
Getting the boats in and out of the water is the most difficult and time-consuming part, and the actual construction of the raft on the water is the easiest task.
"Time is money for us," Jurczak added.
The boats are brought to the shore on a pallet by a truck and lowered in using a hydraulic crane arm and winch. When taking the boat out of the river, they use a wrecker in tandem to help line up the back end of the boat to get it back onto the pallet.
Murseli said the Fraser River is an "optimal" location for fast-water training, since Chilliwack is the home of 39 CER, and it is close enough to the border for the American soldiers who brought their equipment across.
They were even able to keep Island 22 and the boat launch open for the public to use while they were training.
Although bridging training has taken place on and off at Island 22 for decades, Cougar Castle was a new exercise for nearly every soldier there.
One said the camaraderie between the Canadians and Americans was "immediate" and the soldiers were also trading patches.
"We are incredibly happy to be here. This is a huge opportunity. It takes a lot of co-ordination," Jurczak said. "The Canadian forces have been huge on all the logistics it takes with the border crossing and feeding us and finding routes. We're incredibly grateful for that."
The Americans will head home on Sept. 18 and continue their bridging training on a lake at home where they will be evaluated for the entire mission, while the Canadian soldiers will finish up on Sept. 21.
