CF take out Taliban mortar team

The Stars and Stripes has an article about Canadian soldiers attacking a Taliban mortar team in Afghanistan. The article is a perfect example of the sort of thing one never sees in Canadian news.

US helicopter medics in Afghanistan

Danger Room has an article about US Air Force airborne medics in Afghanistan.

Each of these pararescue jumpers, or PJs, was not only trained as a kind of airborne emergency medical technician, stabilizing patients and offering basic trauma care. They could also perform battlefield surgery — inserting chest tubes, removing fluid from around the heart, even performing amputations, if need be. And they could do all that after parachuting into hostile territory to rescue a downed pilot, or scuba diving into murky waters, or squeezing underneath a wrecked vehicle, or rappelling from the helicopter into a free-fire zone. That’s what the sliding bar along the ceiling of the Black Hawk’s cabin was for.

Honesty Traces

Danger Room has an article about using GPS records of military vehicle movements to create what is called an honesty trace to determine vulnerabilities to IED attacks.

Windsor Naval Reserve Division thinking of moving

The Windsor Star reports that HMCS Hunter, the local Naval Reserve Division, is considering moving house.

The Department of National Defence is negotiating with the Windsor Port Authority to lease the former Mill Cove Marina lands at the foot of Mill Street to build a new headquarters for the local naval reserve division.

CF drops donkey experiment in Afghanistan

The Halifax Chronicle Herald reports that the Canadian Forces have called off an experiment to use donkeys as, well, beasts of burden in Afghanistan.

The hope was the donkey,, which can survive with little water and carry nearly 160 kilograms of gear, would be able to help.

But the animal didn’t live up to the billing that has made it popular with United States and British soldiers, who use pack animals to support special operations in the mountains.

The Americans studied the use of camels, dogs and mules — but the donkey came out tops in the ratings.