The Medicine Man exercises are held in British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS), Alberta, Canada. With a training area larger that Luxembourg, it is an ideal area to get to grips with tactics that are required for an Armoured Battle Group.

The Exercise was split down into two parts, The live-firing package and the Tes phase. The live-firing phase starts at a low level with each different grouping getting to grips with their own gunnery systems and then progresses onto full size Battle Group attacks moving over vast amounts of the open countryside.

Being a member of the Reconnaissance Platoon it was up to us to find and then report back on the enemy so as to bring in the big guns (and by big guns I mean the Warriors of the Rifle Companies, the Challenger 2 tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards and at times indirect fire from the AS90's of the Royal Artillery) to destroy them.

After the live-firing package had finished it was time to move into the Test Exercise (TESEX) phase. As with Poland we had to fit DEFWES kit onto our vehicles so as to indicate not only you destroying them but also when they get lucky and destroy you. The Opposing Force (OPFOR) spend up to nine months in BATUS playing enemy for the various Battle Groups that go through, so they get to know the area a lot better than us and it takes a lot of skill as a Battle Group to beat them. It was hard work but in the end the Irish Guards came out on top by using skill and deternination to overcome an extremely keen OPFOR.

After the exercise had finished it was time for some lucky members of the Battle Group to go down to Jasper National Park for some adventure training. This included white-water rafting, canoeing, rock climbing, parachuting, paragliding, mountaineering and horse riding.

The BATUS experience has now brought the Battle Group up to a very high standard and we are looking forward to deploying along with the other 20,000 soldiers to the Oman in September 2001.