Yes! I agree with all the commenters saying how good it is to have a Canadian-made film honestly showing Canadian soldiers doing things the Canadian way! Next, maybe we could have one about the Airborne Regiment.
shareIt is an excellent war film.
shareThe gear layout is SF. Sniper team. How much more tripped out in fancy gear would you expect your AB regiments to be? Problem is, though they are dressed as SF (beginning of film), their weapon load-out is inept. This is more consequence of movie, than RL. They have 203's but no ammo? They are a squad, but have no squad automatic rifle (think Rambo here, except 249 or 240 vs. m60)? They run? Insurgents chase them? Yet they have no grenades, or they don't throw them? They just TOSS them to each other later? How would you like it if someone tossed a grenade to you? Then they run through a hole in the wall, but have no smoke? They walk deliberately through a hole in the wall while being chased with no smoke? They are close enough to a base to have COMMs without re-trans, but there is no air support? SF has dedicated air support. OK, well they're on the way. The armored gun trunks stay on the roads, but the roads are littered with IEDs? They are BTW, the roads are littered by IEDs so it's best to cut through things, and there is a field to cut through. Military chatter is accurate. ROE (rules of engagement) are correct. Stripped down uniforms with little to no insignia are OK. Running around a war zone with no body armor is not OK. I'm just nit picking. American films aren't much better, they have bigger budgets maybe. Please dial down the 'accuracy' comments, though. Thanks!
Afghanistan and Iraq were IED's, mortars and ambushes. Everyone is a civilian when you point a weapon at them. None of the enemy are in any recognizable uniform. Those that are (Afghan or Iraqi Army or policy), may also be enemy. There are lots of suicide attacks, it's terror. It's the war on terror.
Okay, currently serving Infantry here, served in Afghanistan in a combat role around Kandahar in 2008 and as a mentor in 2012 in Kabul. So, few things wrong with your complaints.
#1 - Gear layout isn't SF, but it is Sniper. Their callsign is 66, talking to 39er, so it's sniper platoon working with likely 1 RCR, C-coy. You would frequently see Snipers in that loadout, as that is the equipment we have to work with. You generally also don't deploy a C9 LMG with Snipers, you're trying to travel light. If you get contact, you break contact, you don't stand and fight, that's not Sniper's job.
#2 - You don't throw grenades on the run. That's stupid. Really stupid. It's not a video game. And yeah it's fine to toss a grenade in that kind of situation. They have safety pins and *beep* on them, they're not going to go off. They're veteran soldiers, in the middle of a firefight, they're gonna be fine with it.
#3 - Air support. As mentioned, they're not SF, so they don't get dedicated air support, most do not. It does take that long to get air assets in as they can be tasked elsewhere and we have a finite set of air assets, most are actually american. It doesn't matter how close to base you are. We had one TIC where a medevac took at least a half hour to get in.
#4 - The "armored gun trucks" are Lav-3s. They're better than most vehicles at going off-road, but it's still *beep* You don't go offroading if you can help it. That's how you blow tires, lose trailers, break *beep* in general. Not to mention
Side note - Those shirts that 66 are wearing at the beginning are the cat's ass. Loved mine, though I didn't get any until my 2012 tour, and now I wear them to work in my yard. Keeps the bugs off my arms and not too hot.
All right, well it's been almost a year since I made my original comment and still no-one has got the point. Since the message boards are being shut down, I suppose I'd better reveal the punchline for anyone who happens to check in here at the last minute. I suggested that there should be a film about the Canadian Forces Airborne Regiment. This was completely tongue-in-cheek because the Canadian Forces have no such regiment. There used to be one but they were disbanded in disgrace after being found guilty of war crimes whilst 'peacekeeping' in Somalia.
shareha ha !
no airborne!
what a jolly jape!
shame nobody took your bait ,
you should have waited a further 3 years till your thread was resurrected as a zombie on a different site