CFB Aldershot

[joe56]

This is where I‘m supposed to be deployed to this summer for SQ and MQ, can anyone give me any info or links to info on this base? Also if anyone wants to drop any advice about these particular courses you‘re more than wlecome, it‘d be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I took a course there back in the 80‘s it was truely a hole! although in the town nearby you could get a decent lobster Chow mein, a real treat for a West Coast boy.

 

[Michael OLeary]

Aldershot has changed a lot since the 80s. New or refurbished quarters, messes, training buildings, etc. Same dust and sand though. Notwithstanding that every soldier in any training base thinks it‘s a "hole" if it‘s not 5-star rated and on a Caribbean beach, there are worse places to train. You‘ll be an hour‘s bus ride from Halifax once you have free weekend, and the base is small enough that you‘re never more than 5 Km back to the shack.

For a description of SQ, try this link (keep in mind that training time, resources and other factors may result in your course not looking exactly like this):

http://army.ca/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/16/325?

 

[AlphaCharlie]

I will also be doing my SQ & BIQ at Aldershot this summer (providing I pass bmq )

 

[brin11]

Aldershot has quite nice, new buildings including co-ed shacks, mess hall and maintenance building. They also have a very small but useable gym. It‘s not the worst place I‘ve seen, although, I believe some courses do live in tent cities during the summer for certain courses.

Enjoy.

 

[1feral1]

Ahhh Aldershot! I took my SLC there in Jun/Jul 1993. The most angled parade square in NATO we were told.

When it rained, it poured, and poured for a day creating a river of water at one end of the parade square.

The SGTs‘ mess was excllent, but the buildings were shyte. Almost unmaintained from 1945, but the West Novas had a nice recent armoury. That was then, and hopefully now its better??

Nightlife was great too, with a place called JD‘s in Woulfeville or Kentville, as I cant remember which town.

The place reminded me of Porky‘s, really rednecked to the max, and a wee tad dangerous, as we got the feel the locals were true Army haters.

Plenty of women to go around too.

Still got the t-shirt too. Its black (and faded now) and says " Aldershot... A little piece of helll on earth" with some cat wire and bullet holes as a design. Plus a beer mug which has the motto ‘in peace and war‘ with an Indian head on it. I occasionally have the odd swill from that mug, but here the beer warms too fast, and a wetsuit beer holder is required to keep it cold longer.


regards,

Wes

 

[Marauder]

LMMFAO Replace Aldershot with Meaford, and the local towns with Owen Sound, and it‘s almost uncanny how exact the description is.
It‘s always funny seeing people react to the word "Meaford". All the civs who bum around Collingwood area for sking always remember it as a neat little place they drove thru. Any mil member who has been thru "The Meaf" always gets that haunted look on their face hehehehe
To this day, whenever we train at LFCA TC, I never fail to wake up just as the bus turns onto Range Road, (it‘s a 6 hour drive for us to get there and we never leave before 2000 it seems) with a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. I just had *that* much fun doing QL2/3 there.

 

[xFusilier]

It used to get to the point in Aldershot where some people had 90% of the GR‘s memorized. So you‘d get your orders for a raid for example, and you‘d know, that‘s Mortar Hill, or the Demolition Range. It was an okay place to teach a course though, because if you had finished supervising the candidates out in the field, I.E. defensive exes, you could hand over to your 2i/c and walk back to the shacks have a shower, throw you laundry in and write the weekly asssesments in the incandescent light luxury of your cubicle, and then walk back out to the position again.

 

[Doug VT]

I had some good tiles in Aldershot! The nightlife isn‘t too bad. JR‘s in New Minas, Legends on the west side of Kentville, the Anvil at the university(Acadia) in Wolfville. Good memories....

 

[Arctic Acorn]

Jebus this is weird...just seeing folks from the forum who know the place so well...I‘m from Wolfville, and joined a halifax unit, so I know the area very well from a few different angles (as a local and as a trainee). I‘m sad to report that JR‘s in Kentville is supposedly some sort of oldies bar now.

Aldershot isn‘t too bad of a base. small, sandy, and a stumble (lord knows I‘ve stumbled it enough) from town. They‘ve sunk a lot of change into it to reburbish the shacks.

Here‘s a question...anyone on the forum who was on course the summer the Kosovar refugees stayed in Aldershot in 1999?

 

[Arctic Acorn]

Oh, and a question for Mr. Allen...did you at least get a decent mugh from Alderswitcz? I wound up with a plastic one, and the indian head has long since worn off (overuse, I suspect)

 

[1feral1]

Ya, it was JR‘s and it was quite the place. About that mug, its white porcelein or similar material with the Indian head on it. Its dishwasher safe too!

Cheers,

Wes

 

[Danny]

I was in Aldershot last year for my 3‘s and I will be back there again this summer! not a bad place, everything on base is within walking distance.

 

[xFusilier]

Aldershot, I think it‘s the only TRG Area in Canada where a 1:25,000 scale map of it will fit folded into the breast pocket of your combat shirt.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Anyone remember the Big Apple or am I dating myself from my Militia days? lol

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Marauder:
[qb] To this day, whenever we train at LFCA TC, I never fail to wake up just as the bus turns onto Range Road, (it‘s a 6 hour drive for us to get there and we never leave before 2000 it seems) with a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. I just had *that* much fun doing QL2/3 there. [/qb]

I found this comment highly interesting and shows how much some of us really have in common. Our bus trip to Wainwright is 5 hours, we leave about the same time - but more importantly, I always seem to wake up just as we are coming within a few minutes of the Commissionaire‘s shack at the main gate. Funny how the body works sometime.

Can‘t speak for the sick feeling, just the desire to get off the bus and the knowledge that you still have probably 45 minutes of standing around in the cold and dark waiting for the units to get organized, get told which vehicle you are in, and then enduring the drive out to the training area, followed by more orders, setting up the biv, and maybe getting to bed by 0300 or 0400 and in some cases, not at all.

 

[winchable]

Aldershot! Love the place..

Well not love, but it wouldn‘t be a bad place to spend a summer for training..As far as the facilities go. Now I can‘t say much for the training area as it‘s really just one big swamp.

Here‘s some trivia, well actually it‘s not complete trivia because I can‘t remember the specifics.
The flag at the gas station near the off ramp, is supposed to be either the Biggest in Atlantic Canada, or the biggest in Canada.
It‘s probably not the biggest in canada, so I‘m going to say the biggest in Atlantic Canaada.

 

[xFusilier]

it‘s really just one big swamp

You‘ve obviously never been to Gagetown

 

[Cpl. Williamson]

If by swamp you mean festering hellhole?

 

[xFusilier]

I‘m sorry I couldn‘t help it and god will probably strike me down for it but.

festering hellhole

What‘s Cape Breton have to do with it?