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Military watching Whistler's backcountry

Hardware all in place to protect athletes' village, but from what?

 

Whistler, meet your new neighbours.

They're over 500 military personnel who've taken up residence in a trailer city at the foot of Cal-Cheak quarry. They have their own barber shop, dining hall, gym and movie theatre, all of it in the comfort of units that look like portables at an overcrowded high school.

Get used to them - they're the 1 st Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1CMBG), a Canadian Army outfit that will be here to the end of the Olympics.

The Brigade gave a tour to Whistler's political officials and media on Jan. 26.

Along for the ride is John Weston, Member of Parliament for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country. The House may not be sitting but Weston is still very much at work, dividing his attention between Army tour guides and his Blackberry.

Also on the tour are Whistler Councillors Chris Quinlan, Ted Milner, Tom Thomson and Eckhard Zeidler. We are accompanied by more Army public affairs people than most of us knew existed.

We're taken in a school bus donated by the federal government down a choppy forest service road that Zeidler says he could fix with the tractor from his Lillooet ranch. We're tossed back and forth on a short ride until we arrive at a camp that's big enough to accommodate 800 personnel.

It looks much like the kind of residence you find for oil workers in Fort McMurray - with a military twist. In between trailers provided by Edmonton-based PTI Group Inc., there are Army trucks similar to those that transport weary soldiers out of battle. There are also sewage tanks to accommodate the needs of the approximately 500 soldiers currently stationed here.

This is the headquarters for the Land Component Command of Operation Podium, code name for the Canadian Forces contribution to defence and security at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The military is here to support an RCMP-led operation by monitoring the backcountry around the athletes' village and Whistler Olympic Park.

These Army people are tough... and they're secretive.

Once at the camp we're led through a break in a fence that's sheltered by a green canopy. To each side of the entrance are posters admonishing soldiers to keep their traps shut. One reminds troops "Silence is security." Another says "Don't talk about troop movements."

Throughout the camp we find the same thing. Posters labeled "OPSEC" (operational security) tell personnel to be careful what they talk about in common conversation. Images of Tyler Durden and the Terminator hammer the point home.

Precisely what they're here to protect us against is a mystery to everyone. Lt. Col. Malcolm Bruce, Deputy Commander of 1CMBG, gives us a presentation outlining the Canadian Forces' role in the Sea to Sky corridor. A friendly slideshow about the Army's operations is followed by a question from John Weston: what threats is the Army concerned about?

Bruce defers to RCMP Staff Sergeant Andre Labrecque, who responds that it's a sensitive subject, everything's being monitored and he'll "have to leave it at that."

Whatever the threat is, the Army has the resources to fight it. They have CH-146 Griffon helicopters, stationed here, at the Whistler Heliport and at the Squamish Airport.

They have Bandvagn-206's - fixed-track vehicles normally used by the Norwegian military to transport personnel in bitter cold. They'll be used to troll backcountry trails and escort users out of areas that are too close to Olympic venues.

On top of that they'll have a Persistent Surveillance Aerostat stationed close to the athletes' village. Similar to floating apparatuses used by U.S. ground forces in Iraq, it's equipped with a suite of cameras that are mounted to a helium-filled balloon.

Its purpose is to monitor backcountry paths leading to the athletes' village. Spokesperson Major Kevin Mead says in an interview that it isn't meant to look into people's doors or windows... but he takes a second to respond when asked if it has the range to monitor Creekside, an area where Olympic events will be taking place mere metres from people's houses.

"It's not within the zone that we need to be looking at, at the end of the day," he says.

The Army later treats us to lunch in its mess hall. Over a turkey sandwich we learn that some of the personnel are hot off tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bruce, for one, served in Iraq in 2006 and says Operation Podium is a different kind of adrenaline rush for enlistees.

We're told that soldiers stationed here are excited to be serving in Canada and they enjoy activities such as skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling on their days off.

We are introduced to Brigade Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Hodge, a 28-year man who's seen more action than just about anyone else in this camp. He enlisted at age 23 and immediately served in Lahr, West Germany during the Cold War. Since then his military career has taken him to some of the planet's most dangerous places. He served under the U.S. Airborne in Afghanistan in 2002, part of Operation Enduring Freedom when it pushed the Taliban out of its strongholds and back to Kandahar Airfield.

Asked whether soldiers are getting their adrenaline fix with this operation, he said every enlisted man wishes he could go overseas but most are enjoying being in B.C. for the Olympic Games. Working in Canada and dealing with Canadians, he says, is a huge benefit for the personnel stationed here.

Hodge doesn't answer when asked what kinds of threats the area has faced - adhering to the constant OPSEC reminders posted all over the mess hall. He admits that patrols have encountered a few people in the backcountry but that's the extent of the threats they've faced. And he doesn't seem at all bothered by anything the military could face in the course of protecting the athletes' village or the Olympic Park.

As 1 p.m. rolls around it's time for us to leave. We head out past a staging area where the Army has set up some hardware it'll use to secure the venues. Soon we're back out along the bumpy road and get our last sight of the temporary neighbourhood that's there to protect us.

At the end of the trip I'm left wondering, from what exactly?