ShiloBrats Guestbook

Submitted by
Name: Carol Bruneau (nee McKeen)
From: Oakbank, Manitoba
E-mail: cbruneau@rdsales.ca

Comments:
My husband and I spent August 14th roaming around CFB Shilo, Douglas, and Waggle Springs. We took in the Artillery Museum (very informative and well presented), checked out the Canex (nothing like when I was living there, except the location), the two PMQs (one still standing on Alfriston Cres. and one torn down on Quebec) I called home for a few years in the sixties, and the high school.

The school looks so small and tired - like it knows it's looming destruction fate. Another thing that surprised me was how small Alfriston Cres. actually is. When I lived there it seemed so much longer and the houses across from each other much farther away. Waggle Springs was found by going down Waggle Springs Road (Waggle Springs Road branches off on the last curve in the road travelling from Douglas to Shilo) to the last intersection and then taking the tractor trailer tracks in the field on the southwest of the intersection. You will know it when you see it. We couldn't get down onto the banks of the spring/river, but got close enough to have a good look around. Watch your step in the field overlooking the spring. It ends in a cliff drop off and there are big rocks hiding in the tall grasss that you can trip over. Thank you very much to Ron Smith and Tim Keenan for all your help in getting me to Waggle Springs!

Although it was windy and rainy it was a fun day of exploring my old stomping grounds.

Added: August 20, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Ida (Oake) Rabideau
From: Bowmanville, Ontario
E-mail: irabideau59@gmail.com

Comments:
I am sad to say a good friend of mine, Bev Peasley, lost her eldest son, Guy.
Bev & Rollie lived in Shilo with their four boys - Guy, Derek, Scott & Troy - in the early 70's.

Suddenly at Trenton Memorial Hospital on Monday, August 9, 2010 at the age of 51.
Loving son of Bev and the late Roland Peasley.

Beloved brother of Derek Peasley and his wife Judy of Ottawa, Scott Peasley of Halifax NS, and Troy Peasley and his wife Dianne of Trenton. Lovingly remembered by nieces and nephews Elicia, Emily, Jeff, Jason, Chris, Dashawn, Nicole and Alex.

Memorial Visitation and tribute of remembrance will be held in Trenton on Friday, August 13th. Inurnment at Whites Cemetery.

Donations to the M.S. Society or the Heart & Stroke Foundation would be appreciated by the family.

Added: August 18, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Faye Helgason
From: coming to Shilo!
E-mail: fayeh51@yahoo.com

Comments:
Good one Ken!! Why don't you make the trek to Shilo on August 27th/28TH?. Meet up with us at 1:00 pm at the COFFEE SHOP (Canex), and then come with us to the walking tour of PEHS (PEPS) SCHOOL at 3:00 pm. Have supper with us at the SHILO GOLF CLUB at 6:00 pm, join us for breakfast at CRANG'S the next morning at 9:30am, and help us figure out how we can all get to WAGGLE SPRINGS, where the owner has kindly agreed to let us onto his property!!?

Added: August 13, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Doc J

Comments:
aHa!, I found the answer on an Assinaboine River Journey site...The Treesbank Ferry was operational until the 1980's when a bridge was constructed over Highway #340. A cairn marks the site.

Added: August 12, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Doc J
From: maier j
E-mail: maierj@westman.wave.ca

Comments:
Received this on the Contact page, can anyone help?
Question or Comment: is the treesbank ferry still going, if so where do we get on it? we drove for miles and came to a sign saying treesbank and drove for miles down a gravel road, but didn't see any ferry signs, we had met a lady in souris at the victoria park there, she was from alberta but told us she had taken a ferry ride somewhere out there at (victoria park in souris) are you familiar with that one?? i'd appreciate an answer please and thanks, we used to live in shilo from 69 to 72 e-mail is maierj@westman.wave.ca

Added: August 12, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Theresa Poirier
From: Calgary
E-mail: tessa5291@hotmail.com

Comments:
Thank you John, I too remember Paul and the shock and disbelief when he died. Perhaps growing up on a base and being too young to have known anyone who died in combat made it seem so surreal yet over 40 years later the memory is as sharp as if it were last year. How awesome this site is and how appropriate that we should refer to it as "home". Hope all you brats are having a great summer and to those of you who are able to make it for the brat get together have a toast to all of us who are there in spirit.

Added: August 9, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Faye Helgason
E-mail: fayeh51@yahoo.com

Comments:
Anyone have a picture of Paul?

Added: August 6, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Ken Jenkins
From: Courtenay, Vancouver Island
E-mail: kenjenkins@shaw.ca

Comments:
Thank's John, Paul Wolos is not forgotten, he was my best friend in my early years growing up in Shilo. We were in Cubs and Scouts together, and maybe even Cadets before his family moved to Brandon. Kids growing up on a military base, fathers were hunters in their time off, and all we could talk about were guns and hunting in those early impressionable years. We were 12 - 14 years old during that period. After his family moved to Brandon, we lost contact. My interests changed in the time that followed, but his did not. The last time I saw Paul was both memorable and troubling. I was in Brandon around Christmas 1966. It was on the main street downtown, he was walking tall and proud with a shaven head when he spotted me. We hadn�t seen each other for at least 3 years, �I joined the Marines�, he exclaimed proudly, �I�m back here on Christmas leave before they ship me to Vietnam. I just came downtown to see if I could find a Marine Marching Band record while I�m here� � in Brandon? I thought you got to be kidding. He wasn�t kidding, he had just finished boot camp, was proud to be a Marine and was itching to go to Vietnam, �I get shipped out in a couple of months� and the troubling part were his last words before we parted, �I can�t wait to get over there and kill those gooks� Around 5 months later, I was in Brandon again, and ran into his younger brother Peter and asked had he heard from Paul. He told me Paul had been killed in Vietnam. So sudden, so soon after our last meeting. He had no details, just that Paul had been killed.

Those childhood memories became deeper etched, and as time went on, there were no images spared in the gruesome details of the Vietnam War. So many soldiers died in so many ways. Every reference brings back a memory of Paul and tries to fill in the unknown. How did he die over there, was it in action, in ambush, friendly fire?, sudden or painfully slow, human nature wants to know, and maybe no one knows, just another dog tag in the pile.

So �thank you� Semper Fidelis for your memory of Paul and completing the story. Paul Wolos was never forgotten by his Shilo friends, and now the unknown will no longer haunt us. Paul Wolos was just 19 but left us with a lasting memory.

Added: August 5, 2010

Submitted by
Name: John Edmondson
E-mail: John@jtemgt.com

Comments:
I was thinking about different people from Shilo over the years. One of my strongest memories is on learning that a Shilo kid who lived down the road on Petawawa Cr. had died in VietNam. For those who remember Paul I have attached the following from a Manitoba web site titled "The Forgotten"

During the Vietnam War more than 12,000 Canadians saw active service in the armed forces of the United States. Of that number one hundred and ten were killed. One of them was from Brandon.

Paul Harvey Wolos was born in Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) on 22 July 1947 but by the time he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a private first class he and his family were living on McDonald Avenue in Brandon�s west end. Paul�s tour of duty started on 31 March 1967 in Quang Tin Province and ended twenty-eight days later during Operation Union.

Operation Union was a search and destroy mission launched on 21 April 1967 in a densely populated and rice-rich valley considered essential to the ability of the North Vietnamese Army to control South Vietnam�s five northern provinces. The Fifth Marine Regiment in which Wolos served was an experienced force that had fought in Vietnam since its arrival in the summer of 1966, and it was assigned to the valley to support the outnumbered South Vietnamese Army.

The action that resulted in the death of Wolos started when a reinforced marine company began a sweep towards a communist held village. When it came into contact with units of the North Vietnamese Army, and was pinned down in a tree line near its objective, elements of the 3rd Battalion were dispatched by helicopter to support them. While the main body of the reinforcements fought into a communist-held village to engage the NVA, other elements landed from helicopters east of the battlefield to block the enemy�s most likely escape route. By the next morning the North Vietnamese had been driven out of the enemy village.

Wolos�s unit was assigned the mission of pursuing the fleeing enemy and destroying its fighting forces and their supplies. When contact was finally made, fighting was so intense that it was four days before the first of the wounded could be evacuated. Prior to the start of the battle Wolos had been advised that, as a foreign-born member of the Marines, he could not be forced to engage in active combat. He refused to serve with a support unit, however, and on April 28th he became the only member of K Company to be killed during the confrontation.

Although he died almost forty years ago, Paul�s memory lives on in the hearts and minds of both those with whom he served, and friends and family members. In June 2003 his company commander posted a message on a website established by the American military to honour those killed during the Vietnam War. �That night of 28 April we slept in an open field that was heavily boobie trapped. As we started taking casualties and evacuated two of our wounded you stepped on a bouncing betty and were mortally wounded. We tried to confort and make you feel better but the corpsman could not do much for you. We put you in a helicopter that flew you back to the hospital in Chu Lai. We prayed that you would be saved but your death was my first combat casualty and I never forgot you. We the members of K/3/5 think of you every year when we have our reunions. We all remember you and wish you would have survived. You were a very fine Marine. Semper Fidelis.�

The message prompted Paul�s brother to post one of his own. �After 37 years the pain of losing my brother has not dulled. I have often wondered who was with Paul and whether or not Paul was alone at the time of his death. I now know he was with his Marine buddies and he was looked after to the best of everyone�s ability. I know Paul had a very strong sense of loyalty to the Marine Corps and was very proud to be a Marine. Paul died for a cause he believed in, and for a country he had love and respect for.�

Among the other messages posted on the website is one from Joan, a high school classmate of Paul�s. It reads simply �Always remembered.�

Paul Wolos is buried in Thunder Bay�s St. Andrew�s Cemetery beside his father and mother.

Added: August 5, 2010

Submitted by
Name: Dave Kearney
From: Aldergrove BC

Comments:
I haven't checked in since Nov 11 2008. I'm still too busy working. I moved from Surrey to Aldergrove, but not much else has changed. I'm still looking for old friends on the site. Putting on the BC reunion was such a blast!
The following is a cut and paste from my last entry.......
"I haven't been on the site for awhile-too busy working. The guest book always brings back memories. I still remember my addresses..Q lines TMQ, 20 Ubique, 10 Alfriston, and 101 Royal. I did Grade 1 in 50/51 in A10 with Terry Burns, Pauline Bayliss, Roy McClinton and Tanis Johnston. The Queen visited PEPS in 52. There was a double murder and suicide near the weather station about that time. I was in stage fright as a Christmas tree in the 54 Christmas concert "O Tannenbaum", hunted rabbits with Bob Findlay in high school,was school president until Mr Birch fired me for low marks, the "quick sand" at Waggle Springs, flunked Math and Physics in Gr 12 and never looked back. set pins in the bowling alley, and tried to play pool at Strange Hall. I remember the day in winter 62/63 when they closed down the camp when the wind chill went to 71 below. I walked backwards to the Coffee Shop that day. I had alot of fun in Gr 12 with Tanis, Diane Karpetz (where are you?) Judy Pachal, Doug J and Gary McGregor."

Added: August 1, 2010