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Photo submitted by Kay (Johnson) Ford
Submitted in June, 1989 by Ralph Pratt (S/Sgt 45 Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, including the Ammo Wing)
The RCOC unit in Camp Wainwright was first known as an Ammunition Ordnance Depot (AOD) with buildings (quonsets) situated in the back corner of the present supply compound.
The unit AOD was changed to a Regional Ordnance Depot (ROD) and utilized the present building #73 as Ordnance warehouse with the administration and control offices in the present Headquarters building.
The present building #188 was built and moved too, in 1956/57. Ammunition was moved to the present ammunition dump in 1957.
The quonset buildings in the back of the present compound were usded as A Vehicles, B Vehicles, Sections and Storage for barrack stores, wireless stores, and for the palletizing of generators and other large items.
The building #73 was then used as the return of strores sections and offices with a battery shop nearby. The area on top of the hill was the parking area for all wheeled vehicles and the area back in the compound was used for parking tanks and tracked armoured vehicles.
Ordnance took off from the RCASC, the Petrol and Rations sections in 1971. The building across the road from the petrol station was a combined ration depot and commissary, then the rations were moved to the present QM stores and then the rest of the part of building #188 was moved… by the present building beside the parade square.
MCpl Claudia Ramsay - Smith with Supplies, lives with her children and husband (WO Glenn Smith at the Battle School) in Wainwright. During RV 89 long laborious hours stretched minds and bodies to the limits of dazed exhaustion. Claudia awoke at 6 o'clock. OH NO! Late for the morning shift! She threw on her uniform, furiously pedalled her bike to camp and arrived panting apologies for her tardiness, only to discover she had left work but a couple of hours before! The daylight looks almost the same at 6:00 PM!
Claudia prefers living in town, this giving her the opportunity to remove herself from the job and enjoy a pleasant community attachment. She expressed pride in sharing Wainwright’s compassion while honoring war veterans on Remembrance Day.
MCpl Daniel Savard, posted from Quebec to Wainwright for three years, transferred to Ottawa in June 1990. Daniel and his family hit Wainwright during Stampede week; the entire town was Westernized with straw bales in the banks, bronco paintings on the windows, and a cowboy hat on every corner. This would take some getting used to! Daniel was kept busy in Supplies and enjoyed carpentry and woodworking as a hobby, often occupying a spot at the woodwork shop at camp. When his wife Lina became competent in the English language, she volunteered as mother helper with Play School at Camp and kindergarten in town.
In June the family left with mixed feelings, sadly leaving friends but anxious to begin a fresh start in their new home in Aylmer, Quebec.