Thunder Bay Reservist Challenged during Exercise Bison Warrior ‘15

Shilo, Man – Private Alex Desjardins, 17, from Thunder Bay ON joined almost 300 soldiers from 38 Canadian Brigade Group (CBG) in Shilo this past week to challenge his soldier skills during the Brigade’s annual warfighting training exercise, Bison Warrior ’15, in CFB Shilo, Manitoba.

Desjardins, a first-year Army reservist and now a trucker with the 18 Service Company and a recent graduate of the High School Army Reserve Co-op program, spoke very highly of the enrolment program. He found to be “a challenge that I enjoyed.” He shared his positive experience and encouraged his friends to join as well.

Chief of Staff, Lieut.-Col. Steve Gallagher, emphasised the need for the training. “It’s more than training exercise. It’s also about the ability to come together as a formation and fight as a combined arms team.”

Coming together as a team has been proven vital many times in the last few years and even recently. The Brigade has been involved with many domestic operations, just as the Manitoba Floods and the Saskatchewan forest fires of 2015.

Exercise Bison Warrior 15- the annual reserve brigade exercise meant to build warfighting skills- is taking place in Shilo, Manitoba between 15-22 August. Now home to reserve soldiers from across Northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, it comes after a very busy July after 100 38 CBG soldiers joined hundreds of CF soldiers, airmen and Navy in the forest firefighting in northern Saskatchewan during Op Lentus ’15.

38 CBG operates within 3 Canadian Division and has greatly contributed to the success of domestic operations as well as international ones and will continue to be integrated with the Regular Force both in training and domestic and international operations.