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About 80 Edmonton-based soldiers — many on their first deployment — embarked from the Edmonton International Airport Thursday for a six-month tour, joining other members of the Canadian military who are in eastern Europe as part of NATO assurance and deterrence measures.

This is the second group of soldiers to deploy this week to Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, currently Canada’s largest international military operation.

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Those who deployed Thursday from 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group are part of the national support element which is joining the enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group currently operating in Latvia.

There are eight other countries involved with the NATO operation in Latvia, including Albania, Czech Republic, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

“We are the framework nation so what we do is, we are handling a lot of the things to help raise the Latvians up to the same standard with NATO,” said Lt.-Col. Kevin Ramsay, commanding officer of the national support element.