Soldiers head to Latvia for six-month tour
Canadians join groups from eight other countries as part of NATO operation
About 80 Edmonton-based soldiers — many on their first deployment — embarked from the Edmonton International Airport Thursday for a six-month tour, joining other members of the Canadian military who are in eastern Europe as part of NATO assurance and deterrence measures.
This is the second group of soldiers to deploy this week to Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, currently Canada’s largest international military operation.
Those who deployed Thursday from 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group are part of the national support element that is joining the enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group currently operating in Latvia.
There are eight other countries involved with the NATO operation in Latvia — Albania, Czech Republic, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
“We are the framework nation so what we do is, we are handling a lot of the things to help raise the Latvians up to the same standard with NATO,” said Lt.-col. Kevin Ramsay, commanding officer of the national support element.
“They are expanding exponentially and they are not equipped to deal with nine other nations being in their country asking for things, asking for food, for fuel, for ammo, those sorts of things.”
Ramsay said day-to-day operations will be similar to the Edmonton base. The national support element will be looking after the institutional support side while the battle group will be engaging in training exercises and manoeuvres.
About 550 Canadian soldiers will be deployed in Latvia. Ramsay said he will be in charge of about 150 of those, many of whom are on their first deployment.
“The most important thing to remember when it’s your first deployment is we represent Canada. So we carry the flag,” said Chief Warrant Officer Leonard Power, regimental sergeant major of the national support element.
“This is an opportunity to develop relationships with the other coalition partners while we conduct our jobs and go through our daily functions.”
The international deployment is part of Canada’s ongoing high readiness brigade. Soldiers from 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group have been training for one year to reach this point of deployment.
In July 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the renewal of Canada’s contribution to NATO’S enhanced forward presence until March 2023.