Desolate Military Base?

[BKells]

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2005/11/11/1301855-sun.html

Train vets shunted to desolate military base
Fri, November 11, 2005
By STEPHANIE RUBEC, Free Press Parliamentary Bureau


OTTAWA -- Many of the veterans who travelled by train from Halifax to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa laid their weary heads down in abandoned housing on a desolate military base last night.

The veterans, who are all over 80, were shocked to find out that the cash they shelled out for the trip down memory lane would not cover hotel rooms. Instead they were taken to drafty, abandoned military housing at Connaught Ranges, a training centre soldiers only visit in daylight for target practice.

Cliff Chadderton, head of the National Council of Veterans Associations, said he began receiving confused calls from friends on the train tour after they were bused to the sprawling training centre in Ottawa's west end near Shirley's Bay and told they had to pay as much as $10-a-night for the accommodations.

"It's just terrible," Chadderton said of the spartan accommodations the elderly vets have been put up in for their short visit to the nation's capital. "It is absolutely substandard."

Some vets have opted out of the military housing and headed to a downtown hotel on their own dime.



OK Connaught isn't that bad. This journalist needs to do his homework. Ottawa-area reserve units are there every single weekends running courses and training as well as various police units and Dywer Hill Ski Team. Isn't it also the largest shooting range in the commonwealth?

 

[FormerHorseGuard]

it was not great when i was there in there early  90s for weekend staff for the GMT  courses, but i can see the fact that it is not really set up for older men who may have some personal issues witht he quarters due to age and health and sure is remote for visiting the city. They did some better housing.
I am sorry some of the old boys were let down
But Thanks guys and girls for a job well done......

 

[BernDawg]

I've stayed at Connaught Ranges before and, unless they have built some new permanent quarters out there,  Those men deserve far better accommodations than that.  These men need to be treated with respect and dignity.  Put them in the same hotel the CDS would stay in.  IMHO they deserve it far more than anyone else.

Rant over. Carry on.

 

[GO!!!]

When I was at connaught, I stayed in an ISO trailer with 7 other troops, and we had to walk about 150m to the ablutions shack.

No complaints here (it was June and they had AC) but the vets deserve better.

 

[COBRA-6]

This is another example of stunning inacuracy in media reporting, or maybe just embellishment to sell more papers.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2005/11/11/1301855-sun.html

Train vets shunted to desolate military base
Fri, November 11, 2005
By STEPHANIE RUBEC, Free Press Parliamentary Bureau


OTTAWA -- Many of the veterans who travelled by train from Halifax to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa laid their weary heads down in abandoned housing on a desolate military base last night.

The veterans, who are all over 80, were shocked to find out that the cash they shelled out for the trip down memory lane would not cover hotel rooms. Instead they were taken to drafty, abandoned military housing at Connaught Ranges, a training centre soldiers only visit in daylight for target practice.
Cliff Chadderton, head of the National Council of Veterans Associations, said he began receiving confused calls from friends on the train tour after they were bused to the sprawling training centre in Ottawa's west end near Shirley's Bay and told they had to pay as much as $10-a-night for the accommodations.

"It's just terrible," Chadderton said of the spartan accommodations the elderly vets have been put up in for their short visit to the nation's capital. "It is absolutely substandard."

Some vets have opted out of the military housing and headed to a downtown hotel on their own dime.

The shacks at Connaught may be old and in need of replacement, but they're not abandoned, they're used frequently, as any Ottawa area reservist can tell you. I ran a BMQ there last summer actualy... an interesting note, the shacks were recovered from old cold-war radar bases when they closed down, the Pine Tree line IIRC...

And Connaught isn't that desolate, it's closer to downtown than Kanata...

That being said there is no way the vets should have been put up there, they're austere barracks, not proper transient quarters. Ottawa lacks any proper transient quarters, and I can't even imagine the millions upon millions of dollars DND spends yearly on hotels for all the people who come here on TD. Putting up the vets in a proper hotel downtown would be a drop in the bucket, and money well spent. Someone really dropped the ball on this one, big time...

 

[Hunter]

FWIW I emailed Ms Rubec earlier today about the artile in the Ottawa Sun, I believe it is the same as the above.  There are abandoned houses at CFB Uplands and CFB Rockliffe, and some of them may be condemned, but I think maybe she is confusing Connaught with one of the other bases in Ottawa.  Below is my reply and her response:

Hello Ms Rubec,

While I agree with the premise of your column 'Vets housed at bleak base", your
statements with regards to base accommodations at the Connaught Ranges Primary Training
Centre (CRPTC) are factually incorrect.

The "shacks" as they are known at Connaught are spartan but they are livable and to my
knowledge have never been shut down, and there is absolutely no 'abandoned' housing at
Connaught.  Furthermore, the ranges at CRPTC are not used 'only during the day for
target practice'.  I did my basic training, soldier qualification, and my medical trade
training at CRPTC.  I have also been there for numerous exercises and training
weekends.  During the summer it is home to a thousand or so cadets from across the
country and around the world.  And you only have to look at the walls of the Mess to see
evidence of the military units from all over the world that have used CRPTC for training.

I think it is a disgrace that our vets who came to Ottawa were only offered
accommodation at Connaught.  But I also think that you are taking an unfair shot at the
military, and that you should ensure that your facts are correct.

Sincerely,

Philip Hunter
Ottawa

from Stephanie Rubec:

Thx for the clarification. As I couldn't get any from dnd and had to depend on the vets themselves, the had to reflect that. I was told by three people that the homes were condemned/abandoned.
I will ensure its clarified today.

 

[3rd Horseman]

WO WO hold the train ...no pun intended... teehee.

  The vets train and its accommodation plan was clearly laid out in advance everyone had the choice of special rate at a downtown hotel or do the h hut thing and low charge sleeping in barracks like they would have way back when. It was crystal clear.

More media bull sh*t.

 

[NCRCrow]

I stayed in those trailers last spring, they are gross.

Agree 3rd Hrseman, they may have been told prior. But the trailers are substandard, especially for VIP guests.

There are vacant houses in CFB Rockcliffe, but it would cost more to clean and furnish them vice just staying in a hotel.

It F**kin disgusts me, how we treat our Vets. I am sure if every unit in Ottawa was canvassed to sponsor a vet, it would have been no problem.

Do u think NDHQ brass would put a VIP guest in Connaught?

 

[Dog]

Now I can't say if the Veterans stayed at the Connaught Ranges, nor can I say how many actually went there and how many stayed in hotels, but I work at a hotel in downtown Ottawa at the moment, and I can tell you that we had approx. 200 veterans in-house over the course of three days.... it was great to see them all there, and we bent over backwards to ensure they got everything they needed.

Just letting everyone know that they didn't ALL go to Connaught. The one's who stayed in our Hotel were treated like VIP's. As they all should have been.

 

[Hockeycaper]

Here are the facts. The quarters at Connaught are not abandoned...however they are currently under construction to repair washrooms and showers, therefore there were no abolutions available to the VETs in their buildings, they had to walk to another building for showers. They were all supplied with two grey blankets and one sleeping bag each because the buildings are drafty. As for food they were treated to a very impressive meal on arrival Thursday and regular steam line meals for the rest of the weekend. I am not defending the decision to put 76 Veterans here at Connaught for that time period but we did try to make it as comfortable a stay as we could. IE. we had 5 Gd's (General Duties) Corporals here to help with luggage and check in to rooms and an open bar to perhaps ease the pain. I hope this helped. But as stated many time before my post ..."It is a shame how Canada treats our Vets"

 

[midgetcop]

I was gonna say....I stayed there as a cadet about 7 years ago and it didn't seem any better or worse than any other barracks I'd stayed at.

But I'd say that a hotel would have been far more appropriate in their case.