CFB Wainwright
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, commonly referred to as CFB Wainwright is a Canadian Forces Base located adjacent to the town of Wainwright, Alberta. Its 620 km² training area is used for live-fire artillery, armoured and infantry training. For Postal purpose the base is referred to as Denwood, Alberta.
[edit] History
Buffalo National Park was closed in 1940 and the property transferred to the Department of National Defence for the creation of an ammunition storage facility as well as an army training camp. Called Wainwright Military Camp, or just Camp Wainwright, the facility saw use from 1945-1946 as a prisoner of war internment camp for 1,100 captured German officers, soldiers and civilians.
Decommissioned as a POW internment camp in 1946, Camp Wainwright reverted to a Canadian Army training facility. Wainwright's infrastructure expanded significantly during the Korean War, training both Canadian soldiers and units from the United Nations' Commonwealth Contingent.
The February 1, 1968 merger of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force to form the Canadian Armed Forces saw the facility's name change to Canadian Forces Base Wainwright or just CFB Wainwright.
Subsequent changes to the force structure saw Wainwright's role as a training facility evolve, particularly as the garrisons at CFB Calgary and CFB Edmonton shifted some of their training to the newly-established and much larger CFB Suffield.
Defence cuts at the end of the Cold War during the 1990s resulted in the closure of CFB Calgary and consolidation of units at CFB Edmonton. CFB Wainwright was also impacted by defence cuts and was reduced to an Area Support Unit (ASU). ASU Wainwright, as the facility is also called, has 690 military personnel and 300 civilian workers. As part of 1 Area Support Group (ASG), it hosts the Land Force Western Area Training Centre (LFWATC) and Canadian Manoeuvre Training Centre (CMTC), as well as the following units:
- 742 Signal Squadron Detachment
- 1 Field Ambulance Detachment
- 1 Dental Detachment
- 1 Garrison Military Police Company detachment
The transient military population averages over 1,000 soldiers at any given time, and in the summer it grows significantly, when hundreds of primary reserve soldiers undertake annual training.
