🚀 go-pugleaf

"Andrew Chaplin" <ab.chaplin@yourfinger.rogers.com> wrote in message 
news:IvmdnSxofuJscDHZnZ2dnUVZ_o6dnZ2d@giganews.com...
> "Arved Sandstrom" <asandstrom@accesswave.ca> wrote in message
> news:_J3rg.97495$I61.20336@clgrps13...
>
>> Andrew, I was hoping it would not come to this, but you've thrown down 
>> the
>> gauntlet. A "how bad was it?" contest it shall be.
>>
>> But before we get into describing how shitty various areas were, I stand 
>> in
>> defense of Gagtown. In summer, it holds its own in terms of producing 
>> dust
>> and sand. As a connoisseur, I'd rate it about an 8 on the Sandstrom "Road
>> March Visibility Scale" - eight meaning that at 2 AM on a dry summer 
>> morning
>> the gunner who is the driver sees the catseyes of the prime mover in 
>> front
>> just about when his grille sees the muzzle of the howitzer ahead.
>>
>> But to enter into the contest, I will indeed proffer Gagetown as the
>> hellhole of the universe. It has the ideal Atlantic mix of wet cold - and
>> after having patrolled in Central American jungles I now know that mixed
>> growth boreal forests are worse.
>
> I draw a distinction between dust and sand. Sand you can shovel, dust you
> can't. There is no doubt that Gagetown seems very dusty for about four 
> weeks
> in late July and early August, and it's a fine dust that is easily stirred 
> up
> by vehicle tires, but the roads are built with aggregate that is brought 
> in
> from elsewhere -- Minto, I think; the local dirt produces very little 
> dust.
> (Now you know why M Battery insisted on pretty tight march discipline.)

You have a point - there is dust and then there is sand. Dust is a problem 
regardless, no matter whether it derives from sand or earth. Sand, if it is 
of the right consistency, can actually make life quite pleasant - decent 
drainage, possibly very little dust, and excellent digging. Since a good 
sand is also optimum material for sandbags (some people may scratch their 
heads and say, well, of course you put sand in sandbags, but consider this - 
what if there be no sand?), the sand you scoop out from your field works 
goes right into bags.

My guess would be that the most stupendous dust is generated in a clayey 
terrain. In summer, once that's had time to dry out, it's dust city when 
pulverized. Bragg comes to mind - it's reasonably sandy still, but also 
quite clayey. Truly sandy operating areas, like all of Camp Lejeune, are 
actually quite pleasant.

The other point - and your comment about roads leads to this remark - is 
that a great deal of the motor traffic on a military base stays on roads, 
even if they are quite secondary roads or nearly trails. As a result, one's 
impressions of the dustiness of a training area are more accurately 
impressions of the dustiness of the roads, not of the base in general.

> That point conceded, I am fairly sure that Gagetown is not boreal forest. 
> I
> think it is classified as second-growth mixed Acadian forest. That doesn't
> make it any easier to get through. (Gagetown is also that place where the 
> laws
> of physics have little effect and one finds standing water on the sides of
> hills.)

I think you're right about Gagetown being Acadian forest - I find that this 
is the predominant forest cover in NB. There are boreal or boreal-type 
forests in NB - namely bog forests and coastal (fog) forests - just as there 
are in NS, and the odds are good that Gagetown has bog forest patches here 
and there. But in general NS, NB and PEI are substantially Acadian. Although 
as one approaches the Quebec border it shades over into Great 
Lakes-St.Lawrence forests. Newfoundland, OTOH, is classified as being all 
boreal.

On the ground I'm not much aware of the distinction, seeing as how large 
swaths of Acadian forest resemble large swaths of boreal forest. There is 
certainly no problem in NB or NS in locating an impenetrable mass of spruce, 
fir, pine and tamarack to struggle through - in that vegetation cover 
visibility may be on the order of 5 metres, and movement rates are glacial.

Gagetown is well-situated for exposing troops to truly bad weather. It's far 
enough inland in NB to catch cold air masses roving out of Quebec in 
wintertime, so it can get cold there in a way which is not common in Nova 
Scotia. A buddy of mine got his ears frostbit there. And spring and fall are 
characterized by endless stretches of wet cold: 35,40,45 degrees F, with 
constant rain and occasional sleet. Having been based at, or trained in, 
virtually every clime and place, I've frequently asserted (and certainly 
believe) that without a doubt the most hostile and challenging environment 
to survive in is presented by the early spring and late fall of a temperate 
zone.

AHS