# Shilo Manitoba



## para (2 Jan 2002)

Can someone tell me all about Shilo, Manitoba and what is there please.


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## ArmyAl (2 Jan 2002)

Its a very very very lonely base with nothing to do other then lift weights at the gym which really is a good one.
The Jr. mess is always empty, theirs another club that alot of natives attend but its boring.
You have the museum which is nice but once is enough. 
The germans left so theres no more "trading" and looking at cool kit.
You can by booze at the canex, if that doesn‘t tell you something then I‘ll tell you, "1 1/2 hour drive"! to Brandon, add another 1 and half to the city, winni.
It‘s a great place for track but thats it for the training area, the mess sucks.
But if you meet the right people you‘ll have the best time of your life or you can get in the best shape of your life!
  :evil:


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## RCA (2 Jan 2002)

As one who knows Shilo very well :

It depends under what circumstances you are coming. ie training posted etc, single, family.

Shilo is in the prairies with all the weather that entails. Cold winters, hot summers. Advantages are no mosquitoes in the winter and you don‘t need to shovel your driveway in the summer. 

There is a large training area and base facilities aren‘t bad. If you’re posted to the Regt, then that will become your home. The JRs Mess (“El Parado" club isn‘t bad with them putting on dances and events on a regular basis. The SNCOs mess is usually quite and the officers mess is okay if your are a Jr Officer. The dining hall is first rate and if you have single quarters, the rooms are single and ok (not up to air force standards but what do you expect.)

Brandon is only 20 mins down a nice paved highway. It has a 40,000 population and is growing faster than Winnipeg. The standard of living is good. A 3 bedroom bungalow runs from $80-$120,000 range. It has good schools and a low crime rate. The shopping is good and there is a first rate sports facility. Having only 40000 people does limit the to what there is. But Winnipeg (500,000) is only 2 hrs down a dual lane highway.

It all comes down to what you what to make of it. Go in with a closed mind and hate the place or be open and find it one of your best postings and end up retiring in the area (as a lot have.) It’s up to you.


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## Mark Schiller (3 Jan 2002)

Camp Shilo...I was born there...spent the fisrt  7 years of my life there but that was before the Germans. My brothers and I got into heeps of mischief there, even though Dad was a Provost Corps Sgt. 

Best Christmas I ever had was there. In the mess was Santa Claus and you sat on his lap and he asked what you wanted for Christmas and I told him about this Helicopter toy I had seen. Well they had Santa wired to the PX. While he kept me chatting, the auxilery got the Helicopter from the PX which was next door, wrapped it and put it in his Santa bag. When I left his lap he handed me the gift and said Merry Christmas. I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I opened that package a few seconds later. Yep lots of good memories of Old Camp Shilo and 42 Frontenac Cres. 

Wonder how the  place looks now?


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## rceme_rat (5 Jan 2002)

I took my HHT to Shilo one December.  Got out of the small shuttle plane from Winnipeg, and saw a tumbleweed tumbling (what else?) down the runway.  Cold, windy, not a lot of snow left on the ground.  

Roads looked like they were rolled, not plowed -- on a side street, I dug through four inches of hard pack before I found asphalt.

Snow in the training area was deep in the hollows, but swept away in the open.  Lots of work for the recovery crews.  

Cold and Hot.  No other way to describe it.  Apartment owners proud to point out that both block heat plug-ins and air conditioning were included.  Eighty degree temp swing between January and July.

A few fun bars in Brandon, good concerts in Brandon and the ‘peg.  Riding Mountain park.  Good unit hockey.  It‘s a small town, not Toronto - for better and worse.  A real fish bowl -- talk to the same woman twice in the Canex, and everyone assumes you‘re together.  And watch where you park your car in the Qs - you might start a rumour.

Overall?  Excellent posting where you can get down to the business of soldiering.  I worked with great people, lived in the shacks, and came away with a great impression of the artillery.  Not of all artillery officers, but of most.  Had an excellent CO and bty comd.  Also had a wishy-washy BC and one I was glad was at the end of my tour.

Never regretted choosing to go to Shilo.  Yes, I was given the choice.  Glad I made the right one.


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