By Capt Cheung, Intelligence Officer, 5 CER
5th Combat Engineer Regiment (5 CER) hosted members of the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment (1 CER) on February 29th. The aim of this meeting was to present feedback to 5 CER leadership regarding their deployment to close out OP ATHENA under the Mission Transition Task Force (MTTF).
As an Engineering Regiment, 1 CER has played a substantial role in this mission while closing the Canadian facilities, restoring contaminated sites and transferring infrastructure to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) partners. During these operations, 1 CER acquired unequalled in-depth knowledge within Canadian Military Engineering.
Although this was a mission closure, the lessons learned will influence operations when 5 CER join Task Force 3- 12, which could be deployed as the first rotation to open a mission. This meeting also enabled members to highlight best practices regarding follow-up and Canadian equipment and infrastructure accountability.
The second objective of the visit was also to allow fellow engineers to talk in a less formal context. As well, since all the members of 1 CER are former 5 CER members, this was a golden opportunity to see old colleagues again.