If you were driving around Springbrook this past weekend you would have noticed a strange green tent in the middle of a snow covered area.

Of course Springbrook, just south of Red Deer, is always alive with military training and is home base for the cadets, but what stands out about this training mission is the amount of teamwork that was needed.

Troops from both Calgary and Edmonton made their way to Red Deer for communications training and worked along side Red Deerian troops.

“This is really important for Alberta because it is a joint operation between Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton and we don’t often get the opportunity to work together so what this enables us to do is see how we work together, and see how our teams can be built,” said Lieut. Stephan Dube who came from Calgary for the training.

The training took place inside two green tents called the command post where the troops were working on making a plan and strategizing for if there was a flood in Red Deer.

Across the City the troops worked on communicating by radio in different locations. To be able to communicate with the police and fire departments is very important and the military are called in if extra assistance is needed during a disaster.

The radios can transmit as far as 80 km depending on the terrain and can be used to communicate anywhere in Red Deer. In a disaster cell phones are not reliable and so the military work on communicating with the radios and they even have a van with all the equipment needed, he said.

“We are the communications within the military and without effective communication the other groups — whether infantry, armored or medical — don’t know what to do so we provide them with that medium so they can deploy their troops throughout the cities effectively.”

Dube also said that working with other people from different areas is very important when disaster strikes within a city, and to have communication in a time of panic and chaos is important in any aspect.

“It is no different than a hockey team or anything else, we need to build on each others’ strengths and weaknesses to effectively build a communication plan that can encompass any part of Alberta.”

tsigurdson@reddeerexpress.com