Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 26, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba D Winnipeg free press june 7 focus tanks run fierce nato Competition by Fred Cleverley Winnipeg free press West Ger Many a red tabbed British staff officer put it Best winning he ranks just slightly higher in the minds of some nato generals than dealing with the soviet he was talking about the tank gunnery Competition that has been held every second year since when Canada put up the Canadian army a Silver Model Cen turion tank which Canadian forces have won twice since that better showing the two Canadian tank troops a troop is four tanks did much better this year than in finishing fifth out of 22 teams and beating several and German teams using much More modern what the British officer was talk ing about was the Fin tuning of the rules to make sure the Competition was absolutely fair for All he was also referring to jittery who allowed extra shoots Early in the reacting positively to nearly every at one time the water trucks were sent Down Range Between even though it was pouring rain at the the judges were attempting to prevent a protest from the next team that it had not received the same dust settling treatment other teams requests for news pictures and television tape taken from helicopters were they were turned Down it was a that if a helicopter appeared at a certain Point of one teams a helicopter would have to appear at the same Point of every teams just to make sure everything was anyone who raised the Point that wars would not be fought under such Ideal conditions was immediately brushed not All the changes were so Many rules were changed in an attempt to eliminate nationalism As a Factor and to prevent the Competition from being used As a base of deciding whether one Type of tank was better than both nationalistic ambitions and tank performance were dampened As a but neither was Eli min As the British officer there will be further refinements to ensure in the next shoot in the Competition will better reflect tank gunnery skills and not the amount of Money any nation is prepared to pour into the Competition there were Many questions raised about the Cost of holding the shoot in terms of time and actual Cash each of the 88 tanks taking part shot 40 rounds of main armament Armuni at per this meant a direct expenditure of More than offsetting this Cost is the fact that most of the ammunition would be fired in regular there special costs involved in the All the including Canadian not based at Grafe Woehr had to move tanks by Juick canadians visiting any Range usually involves a train the commander of the 4th Canadian brigade brigadier general Pierre pointed out that Canada is usually allocated about one third of the locating time Given other units because of the Speed at which Cana Dian tanks can be moved on to and off railway Flat one of the Rule changes this year prevented any unit from knowing who would be competing before april just ten weeks before the Competition this change was designed to prevent a repeat of when All of the teams and some of those entered by Germany were chosen More than a year in Advance and spent far More time on tanks take part in gunnery Competition nations go to great lengths to win Canadian army the Range where the Competition was held than other nations could the rang itself was and competitors faced a fully computerized target com plete with heat decoys designed to remove the advantage that More advanced heat sensing gun systems provided Over the laser assisted eyeball sighting used by the older tanks that Canada the Crews of More modern tanks complained that the steady rain threw off the heat sensing equipment As canadians were Happy to see the Clouds open their target although assisted by was depended primarily on the Crews ability to see targets with their two years the newer tanks equipped with heat sensors were Able to Zero in on the heat generated by the lifting mechanism even before the target the movement away from nationalism at the Competition took place in when the trophy was awarded not to a single National but to the army this change probably preserved the when victories were regarded As countries at tempted to win for the prestige regardless of the Competition has taken a Large place in nato after running Well Back in the pack for in 1985 the anxious to prove the value of its new main Battle the Abrams mounted an All out Effort to finish claim Victory depending on How the figures were either the tank advanced German Leopard ii won in both claimed Vic tory this year there was no the Leopard us clearly out shot the m the using the much older and less sophisticated Leopard also out shot Many teams and some of the better equipped German the who in 1985 ran their old chieftain tanks and managed to beat the this year finished in last place with their Brand new the first British which i led off the posted a bad the British did not they looked terribly the chief British judge mounted a Campaign to them a second the Crews did not want a second but the judge and got agreement from his fellow the British tried a second time and scored lower than they did the the second score this clearly out shot by the Leopard the americans argued that the real difference could be found in the modifications already made to their and that the new the now being issued in would make the differ ence in the sitting in last place with a bran new took Consolation in its sophisticated when the rest of you Are they told other we will still be the like that of the British staff officer concerning the importance of the reached the nub of the in nobody is shooting the future of the Competition May be found in the million computer that was part of the training and Canadian Crews got for the computer would make it pos sible for tank Crews from different linked by to com Pete against each other under actual Battle Complete with artillery and air with out having to move the troops to the without the heavy expenditure of ammunition and with no Cost in eliminate delays the simulator would also eliminate the Many protests and delays about targets that could not be until that time what the Canadian army trophy Competition needs most is a professional sports one who does not need a committee meeting to reach a Bourassa outfoxed opposition in vote approving Meech Lake Montreal Premier Robert having confounded his political enemies once has every reason to look Forward to a Serene before the Quebec National As Sembly adjourned for the the Premier rammed through a Reso Lution approving the Meech Lake making Quebec the first Canadian legislature to ratify the 1987 constitutional the haste and decisiveness were though Bourassa Man aged to conceal both until almost the last the Quebec government is Wor ried about opposition to the especially in Ontario and Public hearings in parliament and in those provinces Are Apt to be highly critical of the general elections in Ontario and new Bruns Wick May even result in the defeat of James Stewart in governments which signed the agree pressures to reopen the to make changes unfavourable to que Are Likely to before the pressures get too Bourassa wanted to lob the constitutional Ball Back into English Canadas Quick ratification by the National Assembly was his Way of telling English Canada that Quebec was living up to its word and expected its other partners in confederation to do the the Legal text As it stands is the Accord Quebec asked the one Ottawa and All other provinces agreed Quebec takes the text As a solemn not open to substantial of also had a Domestic political he did not want to leave the agreement lying around a ratified All giving time to the parti quebecois and other nationalist groups to arouse Public opposition to the risk of significant opposition May be polls show Quebe cers to be solidly in favor of the Accord and especially its recognition of Quebec As a distinct but Bourassa has Learned not to take unnecessary no matter How and on the constitutional Issue he simply left the pm opposition eating his the government put the opposition off guard by hinting it would not want to be the first government to ratify the but just a few Days before summer adjournment it introduced a motion for a special limited to 35 on the constitutional the Liber Al majority passed the Over the outraged protests of the and the debate ending three Days later with a solid Liberal vote in the 35hour limit was a Clever it was the same length of time the pm government had decreed for the debate on the referendum ques Tion in if 35 hours was enough to debate getting out of said government House Leader Michel it should be enough to debate rejoining there want much pm Leader Pierre Marc Johnson could except repeat his set speech on the Accord it will weaken gives the province nothing but and will permit the courts to under mine the French language in the Only French speaking state in North Johnson had clearly been outman oeuvres again by the wily but the Premier May find it harder to do that when the legislature resumes in the Johnson has just won a solid vote of Confidence at a party and is More firmly in control of the pm than he has been since losing the 1985 he United party by making a somewhat clearer commitment to an Independent he now goes around saying i am a Sovereign St instead of pretending to be a federalist by Day and a separatist by the pcs position on Independence is still Independence remains the party Lon term but for the Short term meaning at least for the next election the party sanctions Johnsons Cloudy concept of progressing toward sovereignty by National affirm that apparently Means exploiting federalism for All its Worth until the people Are ready for the confirmation of Johnsons the new Unity of his May make for a better opposition in the National which would be a Good thing for the political life of the but so far Johnson has been quite unable to make any Marks on the Bourassa toys with him in the legis never answering turning every Shaft Back at the somewhat pompous and sending him into spasms of indignation and this is the premiers outside the in Bourassa is confident and the Leader who creates builds Hydro brings Quebec Back into and gets things hell probably have a pleasant business is booming at famous German strip club remember the huh Gogo establishment at which former defence min ister Robert Coates met his political water Loo remember the woman who told Canadian television audience she was Only earning a living by talking to the minister for an hour or so the word from the Small Ger Man town where Canadian forces Are is both Tiffany and Micki Are still Prosper ing from the publicity surrounding Coates Mickey recently was featured on the cover of a German weekly Magazine in the reports say Tiffany is a bit More posh than it used 19 a year to the Day after the ministers Tiffany had a fire and was then refurbished so that it could continue to profit from its Only publicized visit of a Canadian the word from Lahr is that Tiffany has become quite popular with other Canadian who Are obviously interested not in the but to see for themselves where Coates managed to put a crimp in his no one seems quite sure whether its once familiar not responsible for is still in Tiffany is not too popular with Ordinary soldiers stationed in it is too expend there As one Lahr resident other places where the girls take off More of their clothes and where it is much cheaper to watch them do Tiffany has always been popular with senior officers and other vips who visit a fact Well known among the troops and another reason for staying after nobody wants to meet a general or his local member of parliament under what May turn out to be embarrassing Circum the fact that Coates was fired for visiting Fred Cleverley such a place remains a mystery to the German residents of town and county officials were after the what would happen if they decided to go to one of the several strip joints available to the reply was absolutely no one would think anything about what makes the Coates incident even More interesting is another incident that took place soon after the Canadian forces were moved into the South of Germany in the Early the move took place because Pierre Trudeau had Cut the size of Canadas forces in Europe in half and the canadians were no longer Strong enough to occupy a frontline the German entrepreneurial spirit in Lahr was it started with a staged a photog a accompanied by two women in fur strolled by the Canadian forces head quarters in the just As they were in front of the the women removed their Coats and stood for As Long As it took the photographer to photograph them in their birthday the picture appeared on the cover of one of Germany Many racy the truth was that the canadians were thankful for the before the picture not too Many germans knew of the tiny Community in their hillbilly South and still fewer knew that Canada had a forces Headquarters soon after the picture an application was filed with the local authorities for a licence to operate a House of ill Germany has strict rules about the issuing of such the first being a requirement for a population Large enough to support the proposed with the arrival of the Canadian Lahr finally met that the business opened and promptly went it was the victim of poor Market the the most Likely target simply refused to patronize the to Chat up the nonprofessional girls they met in local the other prospective customer the immigrant workers from other countries in the european economic com simply could not afford the prices that were being thirty five in those Days Worth about was just too after the House closed a few streetwalker appeared and were quickly scooped up by the German the who License such will not tolerate Stree the Only thing left in Lahr were the strip joints that Are common nearly everywhere in the the ones in Lahr do better than they have a rotating few of the regular service flights that arrive in Lahr Are without important visitors the Lahr Headquarters contain an array of services that Are there mainly to look after the needs of service dependants in the each of the services has High ranking officers in Ottawa and Many re quire visits from High level the word from Lahr is that Many of these visitors As in the time of Robert want to see something they do not see at the strip joints Are among the attract especially after the local museums some of the politicians who go to Lahr on information gathering trips regard these joints As places to stay away lest they get touched by the same Brush that painted others think what better excuse than to see for oneself what to stay away from if they Are spotted by another Cana Dian customer already enjoying the As Coates they can claim that the visit is pure Tiffany is the Only place in town where such a visit can be considered the research according to the word from is just doonesbury by Garry Trudeau still of top Emo i remorse what for were talk Inga Bouta Fol 75 of the financial instruments available Tomy pint even 6xi5t when i was growing up we Vehap to up therule5asueoo the trading rules in particular Are very Complex and ambiguous Pip Steven khow i was breaking the Law but you Pai Pinan 501 hapa ;