City folk and country folk best at detecting IEDs

The Boston Globe reports that soldiers from rural areas (especially hunters) and ones from inner cities are best at detecting IEDs.

Military researchers have found that two groups of personnel were particularly good at spotting anomalies: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed the woods as youth in search of a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in urban circumstances where it is often important to know which gang controls which block.

Navy considers swapping crews in Arctic

The Free Press has an article that says the Canadian Navy is considering swapping out crews mid-mission for ships on arctic patrols. The Canadian Coast Guard already does this.

CF anti-NBC special ops unit

The Legion magazine has a somewhat sensational article about the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit. This is the special forces unit that responds to nuclear, biological and chemical incidents on behalf of the Canadian Forces.

As I say the article is a bit sensationalistic but it does contain some interesting bits of information.

For example, one of the unit's member says that she is the first woman in Canada's special forces and that she has only been a member for two years.

Master Corporal M. is one of the decontamination specialists. Her boss introduces her as the first female operator in Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, but for this two-year veteran of the unit, labels of any kind aren’t really to her taste.