_________image_________ Officers of “B” Squadron Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadian) prior to departure for Korea in May 1952. L to R: 1st Lt Bell, Lt Smith, Sgt Jack, Lt Stevenson, Lt Cowen, Capt Atkinson, Lt Burch, Lt Rutherford, Major Roxborough
Train and Try Again Training at Camp Wainwright was continuous, with troops arriving and departing constantly. All ranks received instruction and practice in survival, weaponry, equipment operation, water crossings, communications,and logistics. The vast training facility Camp Wainwright offered proved itself time and again as the ideal location for such operations. The men training here however, often failed to see they were receiving valuable experience in the battlefield. *Soldiers could not look forward to being posted or trained at Wainwright. They felt the accomodation, the remote location, the bad roads and inclement weather almost intolerable. One such soldier who trained at here confirms that life at Camp Wainwright, especially during the first summer, was irritating and tedious. Neil Deck, an eighteen year old PPCLI recruit looking for adventure overseas, was disappointed because he was taken out of the first battalion sent to Korea because of his youth. “A lot of the guys were scared they wouldn’t get over there and that’s the kind of feeling I had when they pulled me off that draft,” said Deck. And being sent to Wainwright did not help. Deck described Wainwright as desolate. His strongest memory of the dreaded camp was of the sand sifting through the tents and all aspects of the soldiers; lives. “You’d get up in the morning, there’d be sand in your bed. You got in the mess hall to have breakfast, and there’d be sand in your eggs. There was sand everywhere!… and of course you’d roll up the side of the tent and the wind brought the sand in.” In remembrance of training, Deck laments, “You’d have to get up at three o'clock in the mornng… you’d have your pack ready… and march out… They’d have fake wars… .We never knew what was going on… They just told us you go there. You’d march 15 miles, dig a hole, and then you’d bivouac for the night, and that’s where you’d sleep, in that hole. It would start to rain of course. The hole would fill up with water and you’d get soaking wet. And you had to watch, with the tanks roaming around, that they didn’t run over you.” *Indicates the remainder of this account was researched and written by Ann Grever, recorded with little revision.