# basic training cornwallis 77



## angus (21 Mar 2006)

Hi all, new guy here, just checking to see if anyone went through cornwallis fall of 77. I was in 8 platoon, last course before christmas, can't remember the number.


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## Unknown C/S (21 Mar 2006)

Angus,

Although I was not on your course, I was 8 platoon following yours. The course started right after new years (crse 7801) we probably had the same instructors. If I remember right the barracks were down by the water across from the dry cleaners. (it was cold and damp the whole time).
Hope this helps?


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## CdnArtyWife (21 Mar 2006)

I grew up in Annapolis Royal, and then as an adult lived in the old Q's (after the base closed down) with my hubby before he joined...so I love to hear stories about Cornwallis from people who were trained/posted there.

I hope some of you are willing to share your stories/memories.


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## Unknown C/S (21 Mar 2006)

CdnArtyWife said:
			
		

> I grew up in Annapolis Royal, and then as an adult lived in the old Q's (after the base closed down) with my hubby before he joined...so I love to hear stories about Cornwallis from people who were trained/posted there.
> 
> I hope some of you are willing to share your stories/memories.



I will always think of the closing of CFB Cornwallis with sadness. I have nothing against St. Jean, but it is so "institutional" reflecting coldness and without atmosphere.
I imagine the tradition, architecture and location made Cornwallis, to me, what a recruit training base should be. Combine that with the smell of the sea the beautiful, rugged scenery and an old world feel of the Annapolis Valley made it a treasure that DND. tossed aside (I believe the Peace support centre is located there now)
That being said, I realize budgets, infrastructure improvements, maintainence, and general costs rendered it impossible to justify keeping it. And combining anglo/franco in one location made fiscal sense.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (21 Mar 2006)

Well, between Angus, Unknown C/S and my self we have three '8' platoons in a row.....[ i was 7815]

...and I still have the large photo of the instructors.


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## Unknown C/S (21 Mar 2006)

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> Well, between Angus, Unknown C/S and my self we have three '8' platoons in a row.....[ i was 7815]
> 
> ...and I still have the large photo of the instructors.



I just had a chuckle  ;D I had the same picture. It seems to me that you got so use to saying what the instructors wanted to hear, that when they asked about the prints you immediatley responded "yes". I also ended up with about a hundred wallet sizes of myself and a huge 12" x 16" that looks like it should be hanging on a wall in the Kremlin. ..............jeez youth....


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## Scott (21 Mar 2006)

And just to make you all feel ancient  > , my father was an instructor there in 77 - I was born in Annapolis Royal the same year. To make me start to feel old the hospital in Annapolis Royal is now gone.


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## angus (21 Mar 2006)

yeah, I remember the barracks down by the water, the cold and wet, typical complaints throughout , but when that bus pulled out after it was all over, a lot of faces looked back.


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## X Royal (21 Mar 2006)

angus said:
			
		

> the cold and wet, typical complaints throughout , but when that bus pulled out after it was all over, a lot of faces looked back.


I was in 9 pl. 7836 (start early Sep 78) but the first part of the quote is perfectly correct. As to looking back it would of done us no good any way. After a couple days delay in leaving due to bad weather we left in a heavy snow storm with almost no visibility. Missed the plane at Greenwood & had to bus to Halifax to catch it but only after they held it there for us.

Best Wishes


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## bboyintown (21 Mar 2006)

I was through Cornwallis in 66.  Before tri-service. I was Navy and my unit was Skeena 3/66.  The last basic for the year for four months.  Right after that I believe it went  from 16 weeks to 26 weeks.  We had gas simulation in the final weeks - never forget it.  After that it was a short jaunt up the rail line that passed right through the base and all the way up Anapolis valley.  It is some of the most beautiful country in Nova Scotia.  I too remember the Military Headquarters and the Staff Living Area.   Homes in subdivisions across the street from the base.  Every enlistee had to do their duty at the Gatehouse and stockade.  Payroll was kept there and it was your duty to do a watch there, as well as night fire-watch in the base hospital. Spooky when your seventeen and away from Mommy and Daddy for the first time.  You suck it up and ride on the knowledge that others checked out the lower morgue area and lived to tell about it.  So maybe there was a good chance that  I would make it.  It left an indelible memory.  But that was forty years ago now. and they don't even have a record of my service anymore.  At least that is what I am told.  Bye for now.
bboyintown


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## Old_navy_062 (12 May 2006)

X Royal - do you remember any of the names of the 9 Pl staff?


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## X Royal (12 May 2006)

Only a few and they were RCR's.
Mcpl Dave Lamb who I heard latered remustered to postal clerk.
Cpl Walsh who was in the process of a remuster, not sure to what.
Sgt. McCarty(sp?) who I last seen in Petawawa early eighties.
Barracks behind the old barber shop accross from the old Cannex. New Cannex under consttruction when I was there.


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## Sher H (25 Jun 2006)

I was there in July-August of 77. for basic. Had a great time, especially remember Master Corporal Page that taught us first-aid. The famous head wound bandage exercise was a special memory (you needed to get past that one).


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## Sher H (25 Jun 2006)

And I'll never forget the train from Sherbrooke to Saint John NB and ferry ride from Saint John NB across the Fundy Bay to Digby   and then the fifteen minute train ride onto the base......


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## 17thRecceSgt (25 Jun 2006)

I was there quite a bit later (Course 8930, 12 Platoon) but I remember the first time we got Digby scallops in the recruit mess (Champlain Hall?).

I have never been to St Jean, but remember Basic being...well being the way you had thought it would be.  Coming off the obstacle course, marching across the street thru the main gate with the Points out stopping traffic...

Lots of good memories, but I will never forget how good those Digby scallops tasted!


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## Whiskeyjack (26 Jun 2006)

I was 10 Platoon, Jan 78. Think it started 06 Jan. Don't remember course number though.


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## CDN Zipperhead (26 Jun 2006)

I was in 12 pl up by the fence near the road outside the base, it got tough watching the cars drive by just outside the fence. I was course 8245, during the fall/winter of '82. My bigest memory is trying to stand in formation on the paradesquare during a windstorm, wearing a parka and being blown right off the parade like a green sail.


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## Blackadder1916 (27 Jun 2006)

I was in 8 Pl, Crse 7633.  We started there end of July.  Ah, the memories of Cornwallis.  

The taunts of the more senior recruits calling "Alice" as you shuffled about the base before that first memorable haircut. Damn, I wish I had even that much hair left on top thirty years later.  And I wonder if the "Stone Boat" ever was launched;  how many of the stories about the exploits performed there are true.  I always thought that everyone but myself exaggerated ;D.

I came across a site for the Cornwallis museum that included an index for pictures.  

http://www.cornwallismuseum.ca/CornwallisPics.htm

Now if I can find some of the pictures from that time.


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## Hardrations (28 Jun 2006)

Did my Depot/Recruit training in the Cdn. Gds. Depot in Petawawa in 61 I was RC Sigs.Sigs were farmed out in those days to various depots. Had a little L/cpl named Archie Rafters as an instructor. Be dam'nd if I'm down in CFB Bordon in 78 on course(I had remustered out of the Sigs) and was down in the old blanco room doing boots listening to the young recruits talk about Cornwallis when one mentioned a W.O. Rafters. The old bugger was still teaching recruits. They thought he was good man, must have mellowed from my days.


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## philr1960 (26 Oct 2009)

From course 7809 Peace support centre is in cornwallis in what used to be the old green and gold. The gym is no longer there but the old clock tower where most classes were held is there.Old canex is gone new one is now in use by civvies.Gas chamber we all remember that one L is gone but movie theater library building is still there.


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## RichardC (18 Apr 2010)

I thoroughly enjoy reading all your fond memories. Personnally, I am a product of St. Jean, Québec 1967 but was posted to CFB Cornwallis in 1982 as hospital administrator. As you well know, the hospital is now torn down but   then the young recruits used the hospital mostly to recuperate from lack of sleep. Things hadn't changed much over the years...


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