Public Safety groups finish training
Operation NUNAKPUT hopes to promote better understanding between organizations
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Thursday, July 28, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Operation NUNAKPUT 2016, a series of maritime patrols, training and search and rescue exercises involving Canadian Armed Forces and other public safety groups, ended in Fort Simpson July 20 after two weeks of practice.
Capt. Steve Nicoll, left, of the Royal Canadian Corp., gives Charlene Brown a ratatouille MRE to taste test at the community barbecue held to celebrate the completion of Operation NUNAKPUT 2016. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo
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"We're holding this event to show appreciation to the community," said Capt. Shawn Wardell from the Canadian Forces in Yellowknife at a community barbecue held on the last day of the operation.
Participants in this year's operation were members of the Canadian Rangers; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the Canadian Army; the Royal Canadian Navy; the Royal Canadian Air Force; Department of Fisheries and Oceans; the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary Yellowknife Unit; Parks Canada; Department of the Environment and Climate Change; and the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association.
The operation aims to have the teams work together and build a better understanding of how each organization works. Wardell said on the previous Sunday night he and the Canadian Forces did practice training with the Yellowknife Search and Rescue and on Tuesday, a number of other groups did a practice search and rescue out on the water to find a lost person.
According to a news release about the operation released by the Department of National Defence, the importance of this training was validated during the operation, when two separate searches for lost boaters occurred near Lutsel K'e, about 200 kilometres east of Yellowknife.
"The combined efforts of the RCMP, assisted by RCAF aircraft and crews including a CC-130 Hercules from Winnipeg and a CC-138 Twin Otter from Yellowknife, resulted in the location and successful rescue of the boater," the release stated.
At the community barbecue residents could meet members from the different organizations and there was a blind taste test for the public to try MREs, ready-to-eat meals used in the field.
The operation is held annually and is traditionally conducted along the Mackenzie River. This year it was focused on the South Mackenzie River and Great Slave Lake regions.
