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A military base, not a likely stop on your normal family vacation, if you’e one of those families take into account C.F.B. Borden. This state of the art training base is the size of a small city, containing two public museums, both of which are free of charge to see.

 

 

(Engineering Monument in CFB Borden, Photo ©2009)

So read on for the sights and adventures in this leading canadian military installation.

C.F.B. Borden is the leading training base for the Canadian Armed Forces, and highly active with our current world wide humanitarian missions ranging from Afganistan to Africa. In this article I will personaly review this military insallation, and the fun that comes with it, starting with the public access land and naval museum.

 

 

(Entrance to the Land and Naval Museum, Photo ©2009)

This museum is the center piece of Canadian military history, containing enough tanks and vehicles to start a war of  it’s own. Inside you will find clothing, ranks, vehicles some of which date back to the first world war. Everything you find inside was used in a battle at one time in history, protecting what we so proudly call our home.

 

 

(A line of trucks from World war 2 and World war 1, Photo ©2009)

There are two sections to the museum, land vehicle based on the right, this is where I’ll start. In this section of the museum is where the brunt ground forces of Canada now sit for generations to see, guns silent and on a final mission to serve the public. The most distinctive feature of this section, is the overwhelming smell that is throughout the building. It’s the smell of spent gun powder and oil, the smell of the past. While on your exploration, read the displays infront of the vehicles, they will tell you what battle the vehicle saw action in, what it’s uses were and more!

 

Moving into the Left section of the museum, you will find your self among both air and naval uniforms, model, and full scale replicas.

 

 

(A replica WW2 Chapel in the museum, Photo ©2009)

This section of the museum contains, as seen in the photo, a replica World War 2 chapel, retired airforce training simulation equipment, and many, many exhibits of badges, models, truely a step into the past. AS with the other section, read the information posted, it’s amazing how much you can learn from one simple piece of paper! This museum is a definate place to see on your experiences in CFB Borden!

 

The next stop in this article, was the birth place of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Borden Airfield.

 

 

(A Retired fight plane sitting on the Borden Airfield, Photo ©2009)

The Borden airfield, is a place of mixed scenery, the airfield was abandoned by the RCAF in the early 1970′s, it is only used by the 400 helicopter squadron. Sadly, the airfield it’s self has fallen into such a state of disrepair, that they have to land CF-18′s at a local airfield, then tow them to Borden for the yearly airshow. Multiple treaties have been proposed to the Canadian forces, to restore borden back to it’s prime state of the worlds most advanced airforce training facility. Even with the airfield disrepair, a great ammount of funding is put into it’s old hangers, to keep them standing, all of which were built in 1914! Alot are currently under renovation and may seem like a state of being purely abandoned, but the work is slow but steady. To get to the museum, you must drive down the aircraft parking and service road until you see 3 fighter jets (The ones in the photo above) they are parked directly outside of the museum.

 

(A World War 2 training aircraft inside of the Airforce museum, Photo ©2009)

The airforce museum is truely a piece of art, showing the true history of what is still a proud and large Canadian Airforce. Containing multiple aircraft, workbenches, weapons platform, jet engines, and even blue prints for the once secret Avro Arrow! Besides these two museums there is far more to be seen at C.F.B. Borden, if you get a chance always show your support for the troops that keep Canada, a proud and safe place to visit and live!

 

Just a hint of advice, C.F.B. Borden is an “active”military installation, keep in mind some areas are off limits, but are clearly marked, please have photo identification ready if the front gate requests it, just say you’re visiting the museums, and enjoy your stay!

 

 

 

 

 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Lake Simcoe, Ontario. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.