Day in the Life: Flood relief work
Westmount, Quebec – 10 May 2019: MCpl Laurent Ene was one of the RMR soldiers deployed on Op LENTUS, the flood relief operations to help out damaged municipalities. He and others such as Master-Corporal Cordeiro and Corporal Doughty sent a series of situation reports (SITREP) back to the unit in order to keep them up to date, and it provides an interesting look into the lives of RMR soldiers deployed on domestic operations, supporting and protecting their fellow Canadians. Enjoy the read!
IMAGES DO NOT CORRESPOND TO THE DATES
OP Lentus Sitrep 26/04: Deployed additional 1x troop today. (For a total of 6x troops not counting Sgt Carson)
No change to deployed location,
No change to dorms,
No change to feed,
Morale is struggling, weather is getting worse and the water is rising too high for effective countermeasures. We have a care package that left with today’s troop for them that includes more socks foot powders, etc. Should help raise morale a bit for the tougher weekend coming.
OP Lentus Sitrep 27/04: As the waters rose the guys were called in from their rest day to work t’ill midnight, they have received 10x fresh troops yesterday as part of that wave of deployment. They have received the care packages and it has helped morale. Area of responsibility, dorms, rations no change. RMR sourced another position to deploy 1x more troops tomorrow.
OP Lentus Sitrep 28/04: Troops are in Pierrefonds today, sandbagging. Total troops deployed now 7 x (Excl. Sgt Carson). Cpl Cordeiro has taken over as Section IC for the RMR/RCH section. Weather is better, with no rain on the forecast they will start 3 day rotations with 2 x PLs working and 1 x Resting/QRF. More troops have been deployed from all the units so morale is better with the guys seeing more hands on deck. Dorms/Rations no change.
OP Lentus Sitrep 29/04: “We were supposed to have another stand down day but we were called to Pierrefonds at 0830, so we’re still waiting for a day off. All the RMR guys are in my section (Doughty, Pellow, Cruz, Hansen) plus Baron and Giraldo working at CP. We’re still pretty tired but morale is being maintained. » – Cpl Cordeiro
OP Lentus 30/04: « We’re on standby today, so far we haven’t been called in. So we went to see Avengers and are relaxing now. Morale is rising.” – Cpl Cordeiro
OP Lentus 01/05: “Work has changed to Presence patrols, moving along routes that are effected by flooding. We’ll be going out at section level in two vehicles on two routes for 6 hours rotations. OC A COY intent is to be present for the public while monitoring the dikes and walls. We’ve now had a good amount of time to rest and the RMR section will be going out second. Morale is good and we’re all ready to go for the next few days, most likely to be the same sort of thing.” -Cpl Cordeiro
OP Lentus 02/05: “We were on standby to go to St Marthe this morning but that got canceled. Instead we’re waiting on General Carignan to visit while also continuing our section level rotations. RMR section will be going out again at 1930-0130. No change so far on our mission for that. Morale is good, we did some sports pt both yesterday afternoon before stepping off and again this morning. A lot of the troops are going on leave or leaving this weekend for school or taskings or various battalion reviews. We’ll probably be doing the recce rotations for the next few days.” –Cpl Cordeiro
OP Lentus 03/05: “Had a visit from 2 div commander at 1400, been on standby all day. Continuing nighttime recces of the dikes as an RMR section. All are well. Cpl Cordeiro and Cpl Pellow are dagging out tomorrow and joining the RMR for the battalion review sunday.” -Cpl Doughty
OP Lentus 04/05: Today we were visited by the Minister of Defense. Cpl Cordeiro, Cpl Pellow and Pte Cruz have left OP Lentus. Cpl Giraldo continues his work in Finances and I will be taking leave tonight for 12hrs. -Cpl Doughty. At this point, on OP Lentus remains Cpl Giraldo, MCpl Baron, Cpl Hansen and Cpl Doughty. Most are on separate tasks within the OP and should be heading off to their respective tasks for the summer soon. I recommend we cease daily sitreps as the OP is winding down and switch to weekly until all members are off the operation.
