NNSL (Mar 18/98) - Three dozen soldiers are in Whale Cove this week for survival lessons from rangers who live in the community.

The exercise in Northern training is a first for the men, many of whom just got back from Bosnia and had never been to the Arctic. The military exercise is also the first for Whale Cove since the 1989.

But the cold didn't seem to bother Edmonton soldier Chris Zubkowski, who got back from duty in Bosnia a month ago.

"If it stays like this, I won't mind it at all," he said moments after arriving in Rankin Inlet.

But Sgt. Fern Bosse, the Yellowknife ranger instructor organizing the exercise, expected the training to be an adjustment for the soldiers, aged 18 to 25, who made the 80 kilometre-trek to Whale Cove by snowmachine last Thursday.

"It will probably be a big challenge for the young officers who've never been in the North," he said. "It's a big change for them coming from Bosnia. Most of them have no experience in these conditions at all."

He wasn't worried about the exercise itself, though. "With the rangers we have here, we'll have no problems at all," he added.

The men, from the Lord Strathcona and 18 Air Defence regiments in Edmonton, arrived in Rankin Inlet last Tuesday and Wednesday via Hercules aircraft and are expected to stay in Whale Cove for nine days.

Eleven rangers from Whale Cove met the men in Rankin because new landing regulations prevent the Hercules from landing in Whale Cove.

The exercise will consist of tactical training and survival on the land for the military as well as weaponry and GPS training for the rangers. Their four-day stint on the land will be followed by a marksmanship competition between the rangers and soldiers as well as a parade through the community.

Ranger Sgt. Solomon Voisey said the training they'll provide to the military will involve hunting, fishing, navigation on the land and igloo construction.

"We're supposed to train them in survival," he said.

Mayor Stanley Adjuk expected to learn from the military as well as teach them the survival skills necessary to live on the land.

"I think we'll probably learn a thing or two from them," he said.

Fellow ranger Jimmy Qiyuk agrees. "They'll teach us weapons training and we're going to teach them how to survive in the cold."