Exercise Observing Ranger

Setting up and manning Observation Posts (OP's) are among the skills expected of a Canadian Ranger. Earlier this year, Hudson's Hope Patrol, conducted a training exercise to become more familiar with the different types of OP's and their establishment. For those of us who happen to be hunters, this is not a totally new skill to learn as we do it when setting up blinds, or tree stands, or simply watching game trails and mineral licks. Many of the basic requirements are the same. A military OP may be set up for a variety of reasons and, depending upon their function, may require different criteria and procedures.


We began by conducting a walking recce of our objective. The patrol was then split up into pairs with each pair tasked to find a primary and secondary covert OP. Each pair of Rangers was later asked to justify their choices for an Op by describing its positive and negative attributes. Thereafter it was critiqued by the remainder of the patrol based upon the requirements of an OP including:
-Best possible view of the assigned sector
-Good communication
-Protection from the weather
-Covered lines of approach and withdrawal
-Located in a quiet position
-Concealed.

To aid in the effectiveness of an OP it is a good idea to create a range card. WO Hryhoryshen covered this in a training session the previous evening. For those of you who like to Bow hunt, the range card can also be an effective strategy to help you quickly judge the distance to game from a blind or stand, if you measure the distance to ground features before hand.

The patrol felt the exercise was a success as many of us were able to apply skills we had acquired from our personal pursuits (hunting) to our role as rangers. We also had the opportunity to share skills with other patrol members. The opportunity to critique each other's work was another positive moment as we all realized each member of our patrol had something to share that we could all learn from.