CAMP RIPLEY-The Iowa National Guard Red Bulls of the 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion are hosting an officer from the British Armed Forces during the Annual Training at Camp Ripley this June.
2nd Lt. Cameron Cannings of the British Army's 23rd Parachute Engineer Regiment, Royal Corps of Engineers will join the Soldiers of 2nd Brigade, 34th Infantry Division for two weeks of Annual Training 2017 at Camp Ripley, Minnesota in June 2017.
"We are doing a lot, focusing on combat engineering and demolition for the first couple of days as well as weapons qualification," said Cannings.
Cannings is a part of a foreign officer exchange program through the Department of Defense, which gives our allied nations the opportunity to observe and understand our training as well as offer American officers similar perspectives with training overseas.
"I think really the most surprising things is how so very much things are the same, demolitions and such," added Cannings.
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As a troop (platoon) leader with the 299th Engineer Squadron apart of the 23rd Parachute Engineer Regiment, Cannings plans, directs and executes engineering techniques and procedures used primarily on the battlefield in support of combat units.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, combat engineering forms the cornerstone of Royal Engineers capability, allowing "The Sappers" to deliver highly flexible and effective engineering solutions in the most challenging environments. More generally speaking, the role of the combat engineer involves facilitating movement and support to friendly forces while impeding that of the enemy.
"The use of vehicles is really the big difference, my unit is quite light and close support so we do a lot on foot; were as here the units do a great use of trucks and Humvees as part of their duty," Cunnings continued.
Iowa National Guard 2nd Lt. Christopher Lehn, who is the platoon leader with 1st Sapper Platoon, Alpha Company, 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion, acts as the host for Cunnings and takes on the role of explaining his unit's methods and procedures.
"There are things I would bring back to my unit, techniques that we don't implement as part of our normal operations and other approaches that the Iowa Guardsmen have done," said Cunnings.
Lehn will join Cannings in England and France in July to conduct two weeks of training with Cannings' unit as part of the United States Department of Defense's Military Reserve Exchange Program.
"The program is such a benefitting tool, to see how each military operates should we have to work together in the future," concluded Cunnings.
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