CFB Gagetown


5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown, commonly known as CFB Gagetown, is a large Canadian Forces Base covering an area over, located in southwestern New Brunswick.
At 274,000 acres, it is the biggest facility in Eastern Canada, and Canada's second-largest facility.

Construction of the base

At the beginning of the Cold War, Canadian defence planners recognized the need for a suitable training facility where brigade and division-sized armoured, infantry, and artillery units could exercise in preparation for their role in the [NATO|North Atlantic Treaty]. 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, 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 Saint John River between the cities of Saint John and Fredericton, measuring approximately in length and in width; more accurately it runs between Oromocto in the north to Welsford in the south, and between the Saint John River in the east and the south branch of the Oromocto River in the west.
Over 900 families inhabited the area primarily engaged in agriculture and forestry. The terrain was variable, providing mixed Acadian forest, swamp and marshland, as well as open farming areas similar to the North European Plain. The influence of the St. Croix Highlands, part of the Appalachian Mountain range, creates hilly terrain and valleys in the southern and western part of the region close to the Nerepis and Oromocto rivers.
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. In total, between 2,000 and 3,000 residents were forced to move. An additional 44 cemeteries were within the expropriated land. The base was surveyed so as to not affect some of the historic communities along the western bank of the Saint John River such as Arcadia, Hampstead, and Browns Flat; the expropriation began several kilometres west of the river and eliminated the communities of Petersville, Hibernia, New Jerusalem, North Clones and others. This remains the largest single land expropriation in the history of New Brunswick.
The base headquarters were chosen for the northern part of the base adjacent to the small 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, Ontario.
Construction of the base facilities in Oromocto benefited from convenient railway connections provided by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways. A new alignment of the Trans-Canada Highway was built on the eastern bank of the Saint John River, opposite from Oromocto in the early 1960s and a new highway bridge across the Saint John River connected the Trans-Canada Highway to the village of Burton, just south of Oromocto and near the east gate for the base.
The Gagetown Military Camp opened in 1956 and was named after the village of Gagetown, although the base was located west of this historic village and was headquartered to its north in Oromocto. The base's territory measured 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 Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area in Australia in 1965, Camp Gagetown was the largest military training facility in the Commonwealth of Nations. By comparison, CFB Suffield has with usable by the military, and designated as the Suffield National Wildlife Area.
File:Russian 85 mm D-44 Divisional Gun, CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick.JPG|thumb|left|A Soviet 85 mm divisional gun D-44 outside the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery school at CFB Gagetown
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 army regiments including The [Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada|The Black Watch] and The [Royal Canadian Regiment]; however, budget cuts in the 1960s saw a gradual reduction, and the demise of their parent formation, 3 Brigade Group. In 1968, the Army, Air Force and Navy were merged to form the unified Canadian Forces and Camp Gagetown was renamed Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.
In the post-unification armed forces, CFB Gagetown functioned as the primary combat training centre for Force Mobile Command. In the early 1970s Combat Training Centre Gagetown was established as a unit at CFB Gagetown comprising armour, artillery, and infantry training schools. In the early 1970s 422 and 403 helicopter squadrons were relocated to CFB Gagetown.PPfact

Units and formations

Principal units and formations of the CFB Gagetown are:

Defoliant testing

Portions of the training area were subject to testing of defoliants during the 1960s. The use of Agent Orange and Agent Purple 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 Ministers of the Environment] guidelines for maximum exposure.

St. Mary's Chapel

CFB Gagetown has a chapel that is administered by the Military Ordinariate of Canada. Services at the chapel are available for all military persons and the civilian personnel of the base. During the week, the chapel organizes Mass in French and English.

Economic facts

  • The base and its lodger units provide full-time employment to approximately 6,500 military members and 1,000 civilians.
  • The base contributes over to the local economy annually.
  • The base contributes more than to the provincial economy annually.