Military bids farewell to Panniqtuuq

SARA MINOGUE and GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Twenty-three-year-old Samson Nuvaqiq of Panniqtuuq was impressed and intimidated as he watched the army vs. the navy in a baseball game on Sunday. The game commenced as the military was packing up to leave town after an army exercise that temporarily boosted the local population by about 30 per cent.

”They’re big,” he said of the soldiers whacking balls at the baseball diamond in the heart of Panniqtuuq.

For two weeks, soldiers from the army, navy and air force convened in the hamlet for Exercise Narwhal, the largest military exercise of its kind to hit Canada’s Arctic, but Sunday was the first day that military planners set aside for local residents to get together with the troops.

While the military baseball team was intimidating, the locals had an opportunity to strut their unique expertise during a display of Inuit games led by Charlie Komoartok in Atagoyuk School later that afternoon.

Two soldiers stepped up to try out the one-foot high kick, only one braved the two-foot high kick, and several joined a competition of the knuckle jump and airplane.

On Monday morning, Mayor Hezekiah Oshutiapik could finally say that things were getting back to normal.

A Ranger himself for the past 10 years, Oshutiapik was happy to take part in the final piece of the exercise, which saw ground troops scaling the side of the massive Panniqtuuq fjord in an effort to defeat a pretend enemy dug in by the beach.

Lt. Ryan Moore, who led the “enemy” platoon, said that the trip north would have been a wasted opportunity if they had not made time for some company level training on the ground, and that the Rangers were “invaluable” when it came to moving efficiently on the land.

Fog prevented Griffon helicopters from moving troops closer to the enemy, and they had to walk three kilometres over rocky, treeless slopes that some of the soldiers compared to terrain they had experienced in Afghanistan.

“I have always been interested in showing and teaching people, that don’t know anything about our home, our homeland here,” Oshutiapik said.

The North’s top military commander said the 30 Rangers involved had a special role in keeping soldiers safe and oriented. In particular, Rangers walked and rode around with the soldiers on four-wheelers, keeping an eye out for polar bear and wolves.

During a break from one of his patrols, local MLA Peter Kilabuk, sporting the Rangers’ trademark red sweater, said the exercise was a success because of every local’s involvement and support.

“This has a real positive impact… because of what the land, the Rangers and the community have to offer,” he said. “It’s a success because of [their] commitment to making it work.”

The military is already talking about having another giant exercise, involving the army, navy and air force, possibly in Resolute Bay, in 2006.