The Royal Canadian Regiment: A Soldier’s Story
REFORGER 76: Canadian Battalion Caught with Their Pants Down
Frank Reid: 3 Mechanized Commando, West Germany — September 1976
Exercise Campaign Return Forces to Germany (REFORGER) was a NATO exercise conducted annually from 1969 to 1993 testing NATO member nations’ ability to deploy forces to West Germany.
It was early morning. The battalion was set up in a bivouac waiting to move out after a lull during the biggest exercise of the year. It was time to shake our fist at the evil Russian Bear in a lame attempt to scare him off; while the Bear was growling back at us, showing his mighty claws, hoping we would be scared instead.
Every year during the Cold War, NATO moved over 250,000 troops towards the Soviet controlled Eastern Bloc border. The Soviets, of course, would do the same. These exercises were veiled threats involving games, games, and more games.
3 Mechanized Commando (3 Mech Cdo) was privileged. As a mechanized battalion we did not have to walk anywhere. Instead, we rode in lovely armoured personnel carriers (APC) made of steel and aluminum; a definite bonus during war games.
One of the highlights of these exercises was getting hot food delivered by our Quartermaster (QM) once in a while. On the day in question, we were waiting for the QM to bring us our food and water. It was the first real hot meal we would have had in a few days. We had been eating boxed rations at every meal which got tiring quickly.
The day was getting brutally hot, even though it was early, and the APCs were starting to warm up to where you could not touch them. We were in combats, cam paint covering our faces, and in the extreme heat the cam paint made you itch like crazy when you were sweating. Most of us had not slept a full night over the past week so were tired and hungry but all we could do was wait for the QM.
When the QM’s helper arrived he didn’t have our hot meal! All he had brought were more dry rations! 10-year-old spam or bacon and eggs in a can, dry crackers and crummy canned fruit salad for dessert. What a disappointment!
At least, he brought the water tanker and 400 gallons of cool beautiful water. We had long since drunk the water from the last supply and some of us were starting to show the effects of dehydration. We lined up to fill our canteens with fresh water and some drank half a canteen on the spot and filled up again. Unfortunately, the Army never seemed to take into account the extreme heat of summer exercises and our water supply was less than adequate sometimes.
Replete with water, we went back and waited in our hot metal coffins. We had been told we would be leaving around 1400 hours, so tried to relax. It was the culmination of three weeks of hard work and the adrenaline was pumping. Some of us had never been in an exercise of this magnitude and did not know what to expect.
All of a sudden, the shit hit the fan, literally.
At first there were only a few, but within a few hours or so, many of us started to double over in pain. People were throwing up and about 50% of the troops were doing the Texas two-step. One hundred and twenty highly trained soldiers puking and going to the john every five minutes.
Then word came down from brigade. We were now at stand-to and ready to move out. This meant everybody had to stay alert and be ready to go into battle. The APCs were revving up, waiting for the word to move.
It was quite a picture! Four to five soldiers standing in the back of each APC, not knowing whether they should stay in or run to the nearest bush. Others were running out and squatting wherever they could. Not a pretty sight!
Some APCs had started to move out, when suddenly, over the radio, the sordid details of our predicament were coming to life. One soldier, stuck inside a moving APC and not being able to get out, used his helmet in desperation. You definitely did not want that on the floor of the carrier!
The officers and senior non-commissioned officers were running around screaming useless orders. There was nothing they could do. Panic was setting in. The APCs on the move were called back.
It seems the order to move out was never given and it took our officers a few minutes to realize what had happened. More chatter over the radio. Finally, things got straightened out.
We got the word that we would not be moving until nightfall. That was lucky, in a way. It gave us some time to rest after the debacle.
The medical people came down to see what was wrong; unfortunately, in the field, there were no testing laboratories and they could do very little to help us. The sick and pale threw themselves down on the ground or in the APCs in a hopeless attempt to get rest.
The culprit was soon found out. The QM’s helper had hooked up to the wrong water tank on base and we were the unlucky recipients of his ghastly mistake. When the tanker was checked, there was 2 ½ inches of silt at the bottom. A muddy goo, alive with all sorts of small nasty creatures.
What a joke. A group of highly trained mechanized troops put out of action not by the enemy, but by the QM’s helper. Imagine if this had been a real war. The Newspaper headlines would read: Canadian battalion caught with their pants down.
Frank Reid joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1972 and served with the Royal Canadian Regiment. He deployed to Cyprus in 1974 with 1 RCR and was posted to Germany for four years with 3 Mech Cdo. Frank is a founding member of The RCR Association’s Waterloo-Wellington North Branch and was its first President.
Story by Frank Reid and published by The RCR Association with his permission.
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