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Canadian Navy training in Alberni Inlet

Her Majesty's Ship HMCS Regina will be somewhere in the Alberni Inlet tonight (Oct. 17) conducting training shore-to-ship exercises.
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The HMCS Regina

The Canadian Navy will be invading the shore somewhere in the Alberni Inlet tonight. But don’t worry: this is a drill. It is only a drill.

Sailors aboard the HMCS Regina will be conducting drills somewhere in the Alberni Inlet from 9 p.m. tonight (Oct. 17) until about 3 a.m. on Friday (Oct. 18).

“It’s a non-combatant, evacuation type exercise,” Navy public affairs officer Lt. (N) Greg Menzies said.

Sailors will be practicing rescuing civilians (played by sailors) in some kind of emergency situation and transporting them back to the ship via rigid hull inflatable boat.

“It’s all to test the ship’s company,” Menzies said.

Members of Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) have been working with the Port Alberni Port Authority and local RCMP to organize and monitor the exercise, he added.

Menzies didn’t know why the Alberni Inlet was chosen for the exercise, but said the Regina has been “out doing some sailing.”

The exercise may include some small boat activity in the water and the public might see sailors ashore with weapons. This exercise does not include any weapons firing, Menzies said.

He didn’t know where the exercises are going to take place, but said the HMCS Regina has permission to tie up at the Port Alberni Port Authority’s jetties.

editor@albernivalleynews.com