Life Gets A Bit Less Stressful

A beautiful Friday, First Day of Spring afternoon saw me driving north and east across the rolling Amish-infested farmlands towards CFB Borden to complete my TOC (Training Officers Course). On my first courses we were quartered in the 'Mods' attached to the Officer's Mess, which had the air of a college dorm and made it easy to go for a collegial drink or three after dinner.

Now however, the Waterloo Officer's Mess is caught up in the wave of building activity across base as many of the old structures are replaced by new ones. So RCIS (Regional Cadet Instructor School) students are now housed in two much older buildings.

Bldg O-123, home for the weekend my room is upper right from the door, with the light on

Although in this building we had the luxury of our own room, we had to use a common toilet and shower at the end of the hall. In the Mods you have a room mate, but you get an attached bathroom. I'm still conflicted over which is preferable. I'm sure these were the cat's meow in the 50s or 60s when they were built though.

Bed, wooden x1, mattress, lumpy, hard x1

Unpacked

This weekend I remembered to bring my own pillow and took the time to make the bed, so I slept a little better. Of course these quarters are no where near the school. One has to drive/car pool to the Mess for breakfast and then keep on going across base to the old hanger row to find RCIS Central.

Hanger 3, RCIS Central

Notice in the background the yellow fire truck. It's a display artifact now. The RCAF Firefighting school is right next door.

Yes hangers. CFB Borden is the birth place of the RCAF and there is still an operational helicopter wing based there and some schools, such as CFSATE, the Canadian Forces School of Areospace Technology and Engineering. The air field is now grassed in and the Air Cadets do gliding. Because of the RCAF connection there are some great Cold Warriors on display.

CF-101 Voodoo

CT-133 Silver Star

CF-86 Sabre

Avro CF-100 Canuck

There are scores of artifacts littered about the base. Like this Pak40 antitank gun in a unmown field near my quarters.

Random gun

Things like the ambulance version of an M113 APC outside the CF Health Services HQ, the Centurion ARV outside the RCEME school, or the guns outside the artillery school make sense.

Old Ferret armoured car and 2 1/2 ton truck out behind a RCEME workshop. Somebody's  off-time special project?

Many of the artifacts are tied into memorials, but the siting of some remains a mystery to me. Of course, the base is a hundred years old, and there are roads that go no where currently. I assume those now empty fields once had old buildings on them. There is even a T72 near the CANEX.

Firefly guarding a construction site

CFB Borden being the birthplace of the Canadian Armoured Corps and the presence of the Worthington Tank Museum explains many of the tank artifacts. Apparently the Wirbelwind they have is one of two left in the world.

But before I left the base I did get a picture of my favourite exhibit.

The course was quite useful professionally, and now that it is done I can think about other things like Hotlead this weekend or maybe painting a little bit. It is unfortunate that the course came during some heavy overtime requirements at work and the ramp up to Hotlead, so I entered the course in a bad frame of mind, but I managed to overcome that and conquer the technical albatross of the Cadet Unit Training Plan that has been plaguing me for the last two years. But I never did get outside during last week's nice weather to prime anything. It's cold again this week, so priming will have to wait.