THUNDER BAY - Preparation is the key to success, and when the difference between failing and succeeding could mean the difference between life and death, that preparation cannot be taken lightly.
This weekend reservists with HMCS Griffon participated in a series of exercises on Lake Superior to prepare them for possible deployment during natural disasters or rescue operations.
“The purpose is to exercise our members with boat maneuvers, command and control between our operations centre and the boats, so we can exercise what we will do if we are deployed to a flood or some other disaster,” said Lt.-Cmdr, Rob Cooke, commanding officer of HMCS Griffon.
More than 30 reservists, along with additional senior command staff from Southern Ontario, participated in man over board exercises, towing exercises, casualty evacuation, and hazardous material cleanup.
According to Cooke, there is a small window of opportunity for local reservists to practice these exercises in Thunder Bay because many are away during the summer receiving training at coastal centres or deployed on vessels.
“Even between yesterday and today we’ve seen improvements because we are knocking off the cobwebs and everyone is getting back into the groove of things,” Cooke said. “The problem up here is that we’ve only got September and October for time in the water.”
But the purpose remains clear for all those participating, which is being ready and able to assist those in need, no matter what the circumstances.
“This is our bread and butter, this is what we do,” Cooke said. “Just this last summer, with the floods in Quebec and eastern Ontario, we weren’t called upon, but we were ready to go if need be. A few years ago we were called out to Winnipeg.”
For leading seaman, Joshua Hurdon, deck chief at HMCS Griffon, even though these are training exercises, there are still many dangers that come with working on any body of water.
“I’m going to be constantly looking out, making sure the area is clear,” he said. “It’s common to find a lot of deadheads in the area, so we are always looking out for objects in the water, making sure our crew is safe, and communicating with our boats and the ops centre and ensuring safety.”
Hurdon added the exercises demonstrate some of the main things the naval reservists focus on, which includes personal safety and environmental safety.
“I think it’s paramount that we know how to properly respond to casualty at sea and that we can bring them alongside safely, as well as ensuring negative effects don’t come to the environment by ways of spilling oil or hazardous materials, so we always practice our spill response procedures,” he said.
And while practicing these skills is important to stay sharp so as to be ready when called upon, it’s also about educating the younger members, who will one day be pushing off from shore.
“I just love being out on the water,” Hurdon said. “It’s awesome. I get a lot of training and I’m building a lot of great skills and I get to pass along those skills to some of the junior members of the department. We just keep growing in numbers and our department is just getting better trained every day.”
