Exercise Cello
- THE FRENCH CONNECTION
By CPL Kingston Brands and CPL Mark Williams
Towards the end of last year, 47 personnel of the ‘Regiment D’Infantrie de Marine du Pacifique—a French Army Unit—visited RNZAF Base Auckland to take part in Exercise Cello, a reciprocal, bi-annual exercise with Exercise CROIX DU SUD between the French Armed Forces in New Caledonia (FANC) and the New Zealand Defence Force.
Tandem freefall training
The FANC contingent—comprising 18 aircrew and support staff touched down safely at Whenuapai, aboard a CASA 235 aircraft. The afternoon was spent introducing the French to the Unit, settling them into their accommodation, and briefing on the outline plan for the Exercise.
It was clear at this early stage that communication between the two units would offer its own challenges—only one of the French contingent spoke fluent English and most of the Parachute Training Support Unit (PTSU) staff were relying on some ‘school boy’ French phrases to get by. However, Kiwi terminology like ‘sweet as’ and ‘step up’ had little difficulty transcending the two cultures.
The Exercise began with a static line parachute descent onto a Drop Zone in the Tekapo Military Training Area. The FANC unit has an airborne capability and parachuting proved to be a key component of the overall visit.
The following morning it was down to business—Free Fall sorties. As the weather was cloudy, only one sortie was achieved. However the mixed Kiwi and French team provided a great opportunity for members of PTSU to parachute from the CASA.
It was interesting to see the differences in operating procedures. Once aboard, when the aircraft had climbed to altitude, all calculations for working out a parachutist’s release point were completed on the aircraft. Also, the cue for a parachutist to exit was a loud ringing bell as well as the green light.
CPL Brands touching down
Over the following days, the weather was good enough to allow numerous para sorties to continue—achieving two good days of training, including reciprocal tandem descents, and FANC/PTSU formation jumps. These descents also included one low level static line sortie for FANC paratroopers, followed by numerous Free Fall sorties with the Under Training Parachute Jumping Instructors from PTSU, who, while continuing their Military Free Fall Course, gained the experience of operating with foreign armed forces.
As the training continued at pace, the staff members of PTSU grew accustomed to the occasional ‘long spot’ and quickly adapted to the French way of conducting business. The final combined decent of the visit was marked with a Kiwi/French instructor ‘eight way’ formation—quite a success given the obvious communication barriers!
Throughout the Exercise the common link between the visiting unit and the NZ Defence Force was that the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s PTSU offered an excellent opportunity for some of the French Parachutists—mainly instructors—to garner liaisons with PTSU, enhance interoperability, and conduct combined training in order to gain a better understanding of each other’s methods and techniques.
At the end of the Exercise mementos were swapped, and the French contingent expressed gratitude to their Kiwi counterparts for our hospitality and support.
Au revoir mes amis!