Introduction
The Sands of Time Just as Khaki Route witnessed changes in the sandhills of the Badlands, troops and administration witnessed the sands of time gradually changing the structure and permanency of Camp Wainwright. The camp had served thousands of troops over the years, from Second World War training camps, to POW internment facilities, to servicemen of the Canadian Infantry Brigade Replacement Group bound for Korea during the 50’s. Canada’s Regular Reserve Armies and visiting troops had felt the grit of Wainwright’s prairie sand in their teeth. They had stood at attention until collapsing from the heat in the parade square and quietly quivered with cold at the annual Remembrance Day service at the town clock. They had experienced the bite of arctic temperatures during winter indoctrination exercises and suffered the barrage of insects in summer training fields. With the construction boom within its boundaries during the early years of the 50’s the tiny camp had suffered the growing pains and garrison gains of this transition period. Improved training, recreation and accomodation facilities had resulted. Military and civilian personnel worked diligently to maintain the quality and appearance of their new establishment. Construction had come to an end, and for close to a decade, few additional improvements or expansions changed the horizons of Camp Wainwright, whose initial priority to train Canadian troops still held firm. In 1966 Camp Wainwright ceased to be part of Western Command and became a satellite of Canadian Forces Base Calgary within Mobile Command. The seasonal orphan now had a foster parent Winds of Change Prairie winds sweeping the slopes of Observation and Jeep Hills swept equally forcefully across the nation. The sixties brought changes of governement, attitude, and administration. Under the Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson (1963-1968) and Pierre Elliot Trudeau (1968-1979) Canada and Canada’s military underwent historical transformations. In August of 1964, Parliament passed a bill initiating the integration of the three services of the Department of National Defence. There was to be one Canadian Forces Headquarters overseeing Army, Navy and Airforce. In 1968 an amendment to the National Defence Act rendered these three forces defunct and presented to the world the Canadian Armed Forces consisting of six commands, Air Defence, Air Transport, Maritime, Mobile, Training, and Communications. Four years later Canadian Forces Headquarters was restructured and subsequently named National Defence Headquarters. A redesigned Canadian flag flew without the symbol of the Union Jack in 1965 and two years later Canada celebrated her Centennial year. In 1966 when Camp Wainwright became a branch of CFB Calgary, yearly training activities continued but military strengths were being reduced, funding cuts were prevalent, and a visible change of attitude in military and civilian personnel gradually crept into the camp. With little expansion or advancement to raise its spirits, reduced supervion and rank levels, no assurance of its future existence, and the foster parent being some miles distant, Camp Wainwright fell into directive depression. Within a few years it became apparent that the “little camp that could” had been neglected and should be closely scrutinized by the senior military administration. Thus evolved another facelift for Camp Wainwright, this time from the inside out.