back in the fall of 1994 the GGHG ran a weekend training excercise in the Meaford area as an escape and evade exercise.
I was on the full time stalff so I was in on the planning and conducting of the EX.
We dropped the soldiers who had to make from south of Camp Meaford any where from 15 to 20 KM in the early hours of Saturday morning. Soldiers were transported to various staging areas Friday Night, , allowed no kit but web grear, dropped off on the side of the road in the early hours of darkness and told the general direction to the CampMeaford.
Kit included, normal combat uniform, web grear, full water bottle, stripped down IMP, a really bad photocopy of a map ( i made the photo copies and our machine was not the greatest, copies made intentionally blurry and too dark to be much use). Troops were set off in teams no smaller then 2 and no larger then 6. They had to have a watch so at a set time they could stand along the road for pick up if they did not make to the Camp and safety.
Ememy Force was made of troops from the Regiment, 25 SVC BN MP unit, one soldier in the unit was a private pilot, he also a Private, he flew his plane with an officer manning a radio for scouting. Jeep patrols, air patrols, and foot patrols.
Biggest troubles I saw were the lack of ememy patrols not enough people to cover the area effective, but I think the exercise did what the CO and RSM wanted it to do. Build team spirit, encourage the troops to work on personal fitness, build team leadership skills, and most of have the troops prove that they could over come the odds and find their way to Meaford on their own.
OPP were alerted but were not active inthe search. Mostly so they would know about a group of people running and hiding at the sounds of cars and lights at night.
One team made it back to Base by eary Saturday morning but it was rumoured the Sgt Major and his group had help from a local Police officer and his wife , who fed and watered them at their house. Rumours never fully explained away.
This training was the build up to our CRS training that fall.
It was a good team building ex and a good refresher to personal fitness and nav training.
I enjoyed the exercise a lot, learned how to conduct searches along highways and other natural hazzards.