Posted on 11/01/2009 5:08:42 PM PST by Clive
In September, a team of four snipers from 3rd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment (3 R22eR), travelled to France to take part in a series of exercises with the Groupe d’intervention de la gendarmerie nationale (GIGN), an elite unit of the French security forces.
The idea for an exchange first came up in October 2008 when 3 R22eR snipers were at a marksmanship competition in Fort Benning in the US. The Canadians and the GIGN members connected at the event. “Since we were all French-speakers in an English environment, there was an instant connection,” says 3 R22eR master sniper Sergeant Michel Desbiens.“That’s when the idea of going to France came up.” The trip finally came together after a year of making arrangements.
Four 3 R22eR snipers and two RCMP snipers arrived in France September 6 and were greeted by members of the GIGN’s special fire cell, which looked after the Canadians during their stay.
For two weeks, the Canadian snipers took part in exercises with the GIGN in the Mondésir area, about 65 km south of Versailles. Most of these exercises involved close-quarter shooting in urban settings. In addition to shooting, the Canadians had the opportunity to improve their observation and infiltration skills, both very important to snipers. “Shooting is just a very small part of our job,” says Sgt Desbiens.
During the first week, the Canadians trained using a range of weapons on loan from their hosts, and honed their skills in various exercises. One of the scenarios, directed by the special fire cell, required the Canadians to work closely with the GIGN intervention group to neutralize terrorists in a building. In another exercise, the snipers practised shooting in-flight on board three types of French helicopters.
The snipers’ abilities were also put to the test in a setting where, individually, they had to hit targets in all directions inside a building. They even had a course from a medical examiner on how projectiles impact a human body.
In the second week, the exercises were more of a tactical nature. The highlight of the Canadians’ stay was undoubtedly the scenario involving a real Boeing 747. The enormous plane was the theatre for a night-time hostage-taking. The Canadian snipers were called upon to provide support to the GIGN in an exercise that, according to Sgt Desbiens, truly mirrored reality.
Another major scenario was set in a soccer stadium, where the snipers were supposed to neutralize terrorists, represented by more than 50 targets hidden in the crowd. Sgt Desbiens says it was “a useful exercise if ever we end up deployed during the Olympic Games.”
At the end of their stay, the 3 R22eR snipers visited the cemetery at Berny-sur-Mer, in Normandy, where hundreds of Canadians who died on Juno Beach on D-Day in 1944 are buried.“It was one of the high points of the exchange,” says Sgt Desbiens.“Seeing all those names on the graves of young 18-year-old soldiers was a very emotional experience.” The group also visited the Canadian Juno Beach museum.
All in all, the exchange was a great success and the relationships that were forged will certainly continue. “Everybody was so friendly and welcoming over there,” says Sgt Desbiens.“We were treated like kings.”
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Americans love to dump on the French, but I have found them a delightful and welcoming people, even in Paris and even without my French-speaking wife present (I do not speak French). Kudos to our Canadian and French friends.
I agree. I speak passable French and have been treated far better in Paris than in Montreal.
Your comments are especially true when speaking of the Brittany region of France. Within the past 20 years, I have had the pleasure of meeting Belgian, British and French re-enactors and ordinary folks who love to talk about their grandparents’ liberation.
However, in the early Seventies, I met survivors of bombing raids on St. Lo and smaller villages who were less than thrilled about the liberation because air and naval bombardment had killed family members or destroyed all their property.
On a personal level, I had more luck with Parisian women in the Seventies than I did with New York gals. I liked the fact that they loved to cook. I’m glad, though, that I didn’t marry any of them since they all seemed to use at least half a pound of butter every time they cooked and I would probably be dead by now of a heart attack.
May all of these heroes RIP and pray that they didn't die in vain!
I used think of the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys. Now that the French are more aggressive than the US administration in taking a stance against Muslim extremists, they are my new heroes!! It’s all relative, I guess.
Me too... but it didn't last long into my first visit to France. There's a definite cultural difference from America (among other small things I do not like having machines *beep* at me, though they seem to love it), but I have learned a real respect for the French.
We should acknowledge their contribution to science, technology and the arts, among many other things (including American independence).
America is not old enough to have survived the results of the many disastrous decisions the French have had to deal with, but IMHO (and I hope I am wrong) our time is coming...
Good deal! GIGN have some of the deadliest shooters on the planet. The more we North Americans work with them, the better.
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