Exercise Southern Drive '00

For this exercise at Fort Knox in Kentucky, Roberts was tasked as the media escort officer. In this role, and because he only had three seats available to him, he targetted them towards Toronto media with the highest impact. In February, prior to the exercise he took part in a reconnaissance visit to Fort Knox. Twenty officers and NCO's flew in a C-130 Hercules from Toronto, they took-off in the middle of a blizzard for Godham Army Airfield at Fort Knox. Them they spent two days visiting all the training site including the Mounted Urban Combat Training Site (MOUT), which was still under construction. Several members of the visiting team took photographs for binders to be used for briefings.

After returning to Canada, Roberts called Peter Silverman of City-TV, armed with the binder of photographs as briefing package, he visited the station and met with producer Terry O'Keefe to market the exercise. Next, it was on to The Toronto Sun, and a meeting. The Toronto Sun sent intern photographer Scott Munn, a student from Loyal College, Belleville.

Roberts looks on, Peter Silverman (L) conducts an interview with an officer at the MOUT site after the attack. Terry O'Keefe (R) records it using a DV camera. (Photo by Capt Keith Lawrence)

Everyone met at Pearson Airport on Monday March 13, and flew on a Canadian Forces DASH-8 to Louisville, Kentucky. From there it was on to Fort Knox by van. Once in place, and after a very quick briefing, the visiting media went to the MOUT site were the first group of Canadian soldiers starting their work up training. To minimize the disruption to training, and because he had been at Fort Knox the previous year and knew the base, Roberts was issued a van so he and the media were self-sufficient. Day one, and to demonstrate that he was not going to be distracted from his mission, Peter Silverman greeted Roberts by saying, "Ok you public affairs BS artist, how much crape are you going to sholve at me today? After a second to compose this thoughts, Roberts asked Peter, "How much do you want? They then drove to the MOUT site for a briefing with Mr. Andy Edwards, and to be in the middle of the attack and house clearing operations. Terry O'Keefe gave Roberts one of the three DV cameras to record the action from the defenders point of view. Terry and Peter Silverman married-up with the attack force as it passed though, and O'Keefe recorded the action, he also recorded Silverman's stand-ups and interviews. Scott Munn was accompanied and assisted by Sgt Steve Hawken from 33 Canadian Brigade Group Headquarters in Ottawa. After lunch it was off to Bayonet Assault Range, as troops were put through their paces, then on to record scenes of support staff, such as transport and communications personnel.

By 1800hr they arrived at Poorman Range. This is a remarkable facility that introduces the soldier to having bullets flying over their heads, while crawling though soft sand, navigating two log obstacles, and two barbed wire entanglements in the dark. Three 7.62mm belt fed machine guns, fired live rounds over their heads, paraflares were launched overhead and explosive charges in wooden craters were detonated. After Poorman Range it was out to the MOUT site to record scenes of the infantry company in their hide. Because this under blackout conditions, night vision goggles were borrowed, and Terry O'Keefe held them in front of the camera lens and recorded several scenes, and a standup by Peter Silverman.

An enemy force C-9 machine gunner, in the church spire, opens fire on friendly troops.		The title of the three 5 minute reports, and the 30 minute special, broadcast four times on CablePulse 24		Under covering fire, and through a purple haze, friendly force troops rush across the road.

Wednesday 15 March was the last day in Fort Knox, and Roberts took the crew back to the MOUT site to conduct wrap-up interviews. Then on to the practice Grenade Range. From there they went to Godham Army Airfield for the flight back to Canada.

The visit by Peter Silverman and Terry O'Keefe resulted in three, five minute stories broadcast by City-TV. Roberts was invited to the station and the edit suite to preview each story of the three stories before they were broadcast. He was also given a credit at the end of the final story. Because of the way the stories were received, Terry then produced a half-an-hour report for broadcast on CablePulse 24, which was aired four times. In a final gesture, Terry O'Keefe gave Roberts a broadcast copy of the tape with the reports so it could be duplicated. A VHS copy was forwarded to each the reserve units that participated, to use for recruiting.

City-TV Credits			Cable Pulse 24 Credits

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