Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, referred to as
CFB Gagetown is a large
Canadian Forces BaseA Canadian Forces Base or CFB refers to a military installation of the Canadian Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces Base, it must station one or more major units A Canadian Forces Base or CFB (French Base des forces canadiennes or BFC) refers to a military installation of the...
located in southwestern
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
.
Construction of the base
At the beginning of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, Canadian defence planners recognized the need for providing the Canadian Army with a suitable training facility where brigade and division-sized armoured, infantry, and artillery units could exercise in preparation for their role in defending western Europe under Canada's obligations to the
North Atlantic TreatyThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
. The facility would need to be located relatively close to an all-season Atlantic port and have suitable railway connections.
Existing training facilities dating from the First and Second World Wars in eastern Canada were relatively small (
Camp DebertCanadian Forces Station Debert was a Canadian Forces station located in Debert, Nova Scotia. It was most recently used during the Cold War as a communications facility and was home to a "Regional Emergency Government Headquarters" complex.Originally this facility was developed with an airfield...
,
Camp AldershotLand Force Atlantic Area Training Centre Aldershot is a training facility for Land Force Atlantic Area of Canadian Forces Land Force Command . It is located in Kings County, Nova Scotia....
,
Camp ValcartierCanadian Forces Base Valcartier is located 25 km north of Quebec City and is home to 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.- Origins :...
,
Camp PetawawaCanadian Forces Base Petawawa, commonly referred to as CFB Petawawa, or simply "Pet", is a Canadian Forces Base located in Petawawa, Ontario. It is operated as an army base by Canadian Forces Land Force Command.-Base facts:...
, Camp Utopia), thus a new facility was considered. At the same time, regional economic development planners saw an opportunity for a military base to benefit the economy of southwestern New Brunswick.
The area under consideration was an expansive plateau west of the St. John River between the cities of
Saint JohnSaint John is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the oldest incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 68,043...
and
FrederictonFredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province , Fredericton is home to two universities, as well as cultural institutions such as the...
, measuring approximately 60 km in length and 40 km in width; more accurately it runs between
OromoctoOromocto is a Canadian town in Sunbury County, New Brunswick.The town is located on the west bank of the St. John River at the mouth of the Oromocto River, approximately 20 kilometres southeast of Fredericton...
in the north to
WelsfordWelsford is a Canadian rural community in Queens County, New Brunswick.Located in the Nerepis River valley at the foot of Mount Douglas, Welsford is north of Nerepis, New Brunswick and the town of Grand Bay-Westfield.----...
in the south, and between the St. John River in the east and the South Branch of the
Oromocto RiverThe Oromocto River is located in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada.The river is formed by the combination of the South Branch and North Branch near Fredericton Junction, and flows north-northeast for 42 kilometres to its mouth at the Saint John River in the town of Oromocto.The North Branch, which...
in the west.
Over 900 families inhabited the area primarily engaged in agriculture and forestry industries. The terrain was variable, providing mixed Acadian forest, swamp and marshland, as well as open farming areas similar to the Northern European Plain. The influence of the
St. Croix Highlands, part of the
Appalachian MountainThe Appalachian Mountains , often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians...
range, creates hilly terrain and valleys in the southern and western part of the region close to the
NerepisThe Nerepis River is a river approximately 25 miles long, located in New Brunswick. A popular river for canoeists and anglers, it is a tributary of the Saint John River. The river has been subjected to significant environmental stress over many years....
and
Oromocto RiverThe Oromocto River is located in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada.The river is formed by the combination of the South Branch and North Branch near Fredericton Junction, and flows north-northeast for 42 kilometres to its mouth at the Saint John River in the town of Oromocto.The North Branch, which...
s.
The expropriation of lands began in the early 1950s, much to the surprise of local residents who had been kept in the dark about the expropriation until the last minute. The base was surveyed so as to not affect some of the historic communities along the western bank of the St. John River such as Gagetown, Hampstead, and Browns Flat; the expropriation began several kilometres west of the river and eliminated the communities of Petersville, Hibernia, New Jerusalem and others. This remains the largest single land expropriation in the history of
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
.
The base headquarters were chosen for the northern part of the base adjacent to the small (then) village of Oromocto. In preparation for the influx of service personnel, Oromocto was redesigned as a "planned" town, with buried electrical utilities and residential and commercial clustering typical of larger planned towns such as
Richmond Hill, OntarioRichmond Hill is a town located in Southern Ontario in the central portion of York Region, Ontario, located about halfway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe. It is the third most populous municipality in York Region and the 28th most populous municipality in Canada. It is part of the Greater Toronto...
.
Construction of the base facilities in Oromocto benefitted from convenient railway connections provided by
Canadian NationalThe Canadian National Railway is a Canadian Class I railway operated by the Canadian National Railway Company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec....
and
Canadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. Its rail network stretches from Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United States such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City...
s. A new alignment of the
Trans-Canada HighwayThe Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...
was built on the eastern bank of the St. John River, opposite from Oromocto in the early 1960s (see
Route 2Route 2 is a major provincial highway in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, carrying the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway in the province...
) and a new highway bridge across the St. John River connected the Trans-Canada Highway to the village of
BurtonBurton is a Canadian rural community in Sunbury County, New Brunswick.Located on the Saint John River immediately downstream of Oromocto on New Brunswick Route 102, Burton is the shire town of the county and is the location of the Sunbury County court house.It is also located at one end of the...
, just south of Oromocto and near the east gate for the base.
The
Gagetown Military Camp (or
Camp Gagetown) opened in 1956 and was named after the village of
GagetownGagetown is a Canadian village in Queens County, New Brunswick. It is situated on the west bank of the Saint John River and is the county's shire town.The name of the village is derived from British General Sir Thomas Gage...
, although the base was located west of this historic village and was headquartered 25 kilometres to its north in Oromocto. The base's territory measured 1,129 km² and included numerous live-fire ranges for infantry, armoured, and artillery units, as well as aerial weapons ranges.
At the time of its opening in 1956, until the opening of
CFB SuffieldCanadian Forces Base Suffield , is the largest Canadian Forces Base and the largest Commonwealth military training base. It is located in southeastern Alberta north of the city of Medicine Hat and southeast of Calgary....
in 1971, Camp Gagetown was the largest military training facility in Canada and the
Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
. By comparison, Suffield has 2,690 km² with 2,270 km² usable by the military, and 420 km² designated as a National Wildlife Refuge.
The training area has been heavily "landscaped" over the years by military foresters and many woodlines have been sculpted to form shapes recognizable from the air, including:
- Scotty Dog Woods
- Square Woods
- Flag Woods
- The "CTC" cutting
- The "Maple Leaf" cutting
Operations
Initially, Camp Gagetown was the home base for many army regiments, including the Black Watch and the Royal Canadian Regiment, however defence cutbacks in the 1960s saw a gradual reduction, and the demise of their parent formation, 3 Brigade Group. On February 1, 1968, the Canadian Army, the
Royal Canadian Air ForceThe Royal Canadian Air Force was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces...
and the
Royal Canadian NavyThe Royal Canadian Navy was the navy of Canada from 1911 until 1968 when the three Canadian services were unified to form the Canadian Forces....
, were merged to form the unified
Canadian ForcesThe Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
. Following this unification, Camp Gagetown was renamed
Canadian Forces Base Gagetown (CFB Gagetown).
In the post-unification armed forces, CFB Gagetown functioned as the primary combat training centre for Force Mobile Command (renamed
Land Force CommandLand Force Command , often also called the Canadian Army, is responsible for army operations within the Canadian Forces.The current size of Land Force Command is 19,500 regular soldiers and 16,000 reserve soldiers, for a total of around 35,500 soldiers.LFC maintains regular forces units at bases...
in the 1990s). In the early 1970s
Combat Training Centre Gagetown (CTC Gagetown) was established as a unit at CFB Gagetown providing comprehensive artillery, armour, infantry and engineer training schools, a role that continues to the present day. The base is still widely referred to as Camp Gagetown.
Increased defence spending in the 1980s saw numerous new training facilities built and ranges modernized, and this continued into the 1990s as the Canadian Forces closed smaller bases in response to further defence budget cuts. A large training building housing much of CTC was opened in late 1992. CFB Gagetown continues to function as the army's primary training facility, although due to risk of forest fires in recent years, live-fire training has been pushed primarily to the fall-winter-spring seasons.
CFB Gagetown hosts
ACSTC ArgonautArmy Cadet Summer Training Centre Argonaut is a Royal Canadian Army Cadets summer training facility for the Atlantic Provinces located at CFB Gagetown. ACSTC Argonaut was established at CFB Gagetown in 1972 after having previously been located at CFB Aldershot. The facility houses and trains...
, the only
Royal Canadian Army CadetsThe Royal Canadian Army Cadets is a Canadian national youth program sponsored by the Canadian Forces and the civilian Army Cadet League of Canada. Administered by the Canadian Forces, the program is funded through the Department of National Defence with the civilian partner providing support in...
summer training centre in the Atlantic Provinces.
Defoliant testing
Portions of the training area were subject to testing of the defoliants
Agent OrangeAgent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War...
and
Agent PurpleAgent Purple is the code name for a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. The name comes from the purple stripe painted on the barrels to identify the contents...
during the 1960s, which has led to an inquiry as to its long term effects upon the soldiers and civilian base personnel who were exposed to it. The affected areas had soil tests that measured dioxin levels at 143 times the Canadian Council of Environmental Ministers guidelines for maximum exposure.
In 2009, a New York production company is releasing a feature length documentary looking into the herbicide sprayings that took place at the base from 1956-1984. It has been said that over 3.2 million liters and kilograms of chemical defoliants were sprayed during that time. That number would make the concentration per acre stronger than American sprayings in Vietnam.
External links