Cut Throat Island

Everyone at the site took special care to be sure that new arrivals were welcomed. The attitude of the persons at the site was very positive during my tour. It was a life experience that stands out in my memories and after reviewing pictures and various "orders of transfer" it seems like 1958 was only a few months ago and not 41 years.

Personnel at the island during my 12 month tour included an assorted number of people. During the 1958 - 1959 tour there were not any more than 18 military personnel at any given time. One of the persons leaving Cut Throat on the day that I arrived was Airman Earl Brooks.

In December 1958 we received from the wife of Captain Theron Jenne several green house plants along with soil. The plants were delivered by helicopter pilots Lt. Charles G Rohr and Lt. Curtis W Solly. The picture of the event was in the 16 ADC Air Force Times.

The FPS-14 radar equipment was a dual channel systems that was operational with outputs to a PPI console. The radar was on the air continuously, except for when we would have a shutdown due to high wind conditions. The winds did get quite high at times. When the winds started to hit near 100mph we stopped the antenna rotation. If you went into the radome during the high wind conditions you could see the dome bouncing and there was concern that the antenna could catch the dome and destroy it. The highest wind gust that I can recall is about 110 MPH. As far as I recall, we always had radio communications.

Marcel Perrault, CMC Tech Rep, conducted extensive trouble shooting training on the stand-by channel of the FPS-14 system. This was a part of our OJT (On the Job Training) program which led us to passing our "5" level of proficiency. Although we had excellent training at Keesler on this equipment, it was rewarding to be able to really locate a problem and to get the system working correctly. We were not tied in to the Cartwright for transmission of the radar signal so we had to "call-in" the contacts that we saw on the PPI. The PPI was monitored by the Operators and due to the manpower situation, other persons that were taught how to "read" the scope would fill in. Our mission was to watch a specific area that was being missed by the Cartwright prime search radar. Our range covered the corridor in which aircraft departing the continent and entering the continent must pass. North and South of the corridor were designated as military restricted areas and any craft entering those areas were quickly investigated. During my tour, there were several craft that entered the restricted areas however none of them were hostile; just a matter of pilot error. On one occasion we tracked an object traveling south at a rate like a small craft. I do not recall the speed, but it was moving along. We targeted it for investigation and Goose sent its eyes, however they did not see anything except icebergs. The item we had tracked sat in one position for at least a week. After a while it was looked at as just another berg.

The entertainment was varied from volleyball, movies, taped music, radio, photo-lab, exploring the island, telling war stories, fishing, and the main form of entertainment was card playing (cribbage was popular) and pool. We did not look at "drinking" as entertainment. We set up a photo lab that had an enlarger as well as other necessities to develop film and print pictures. We had an in-board motor boat that was used for fishing and to visit the island near us. Speaking of fishing, the Cod were extremely plentiful. From the shore, just cast a line and reel in a fish, no bait required. For fishing from the boat, drop a three barbed jig and pull it up with a fish snagged by the tail, side or wherever. We had cod dinners and a few of the guys got a liking for the cod tongues, not I however. There was a small fish that was caught at another island that were like a large sardine. We called them kaplings. Charlie and a couple others would grill them whole and devour them, no thank you.

It was at Cut Throat that many of us learned to like black coffee. The canned cream would curdle too many times, so we stopped using the stuff. Then there is the fun of eating. I recall one night while several guys were sitting around the mess hall, bar was closed, and solving the problems of the world. They found shrimp in the cooler and cooked 10 to 15 pounds of it. It turned out that they ate the only shrimp that would have been used for a regular meal. No one had ill feelings towards them, actually it became comical. The food was good and the cooks did a good job preparing and serving it.

During the winter months the gulf stream sea water would freeze, however not for long. One could never predict when the ice would break and leave one stranded. So no one was out in the water for many months. The Island was free of trees and animals. Except for a brief period of a few weeks when two animals got stranded on the island. Believe it or not, but we had a rabbit and a fox running around. We let them have fun and they just disappeared. We believe that they came to the island by way of the ice and then got stranded due to the ice break-up.

When we had snow cover, there was sledding. What is now quite popular to the kids, sledding boards/disks, we used cardboard. The little hills were enough to get an exciting ride. Several of us built a toboggan for the sledding runs. When we finally got it built we climbed aboard (about 3 or 5 of us) and took the ride of the year. When we got to the bottom of the run we discovered how heavy the toboggan was and decided to just leave it there. One ride and done. If anyone ever found the sled and wondered about it, now you know. The native, Ted, brought his dog sled and dogs to the site at one time and we experienced dog-sledding. Of course we couldn’t travel like you see across the Alaskan plains, because of our rough terrain. Ted was a very cooperative and helpful person. We hired him to work in the kitchen and we paid him from our "bar" funds. Gap, which I believe was Ted’s dog, was our mascot and he was friendly to all.

Usually when temperatures were above 0 Celsius and with the sun shining, it was tee shirt time outside. No one that I can recall ever got sick with a cold while at the island. There was one particular night when Airman Charlie Mashburn had left his widow open and a storm rolled in. When we went to wake him in the morning he was under the blanket with about 8 to 10 inches of snow on top. The weather changed as drastically as the gulf stream that passed by the island carrying the icebergs. Our power plant personnel, civilians, did a super job of keeping the site with uninterrupted electricity and hot water.

Provisions and mail came in from Goose Bay, periodically. The weather was very instrumental in the decision to have a helicopter come to us. There were times when we had clear to light cloudy weather, the choppers would depart Goose and only to turn back when the weather changed and we got socked in. On one trip the choppers were past the point of no return when we started calling in bad weather. We tracked them coming in fairly close to the island and then the pilot called to advise that they had to set down because the visibility got so bad. After a short time I went to the mess hall and found that the chopper crew was there. It turned out that after they had landed the crew chief started walking around and got a faint glimpse of our building. They had unknowingly landed on Cut Throat. The three of them walked to the site and we waited for the fog to clear.

Occasionally we had a fire alarm that was triggered in, I recall to be, the heating room. The alarm was triggered by the fire detection wire that became too warm from normal operation of the plant. That is, the temperature in the room was not excessive and the alarm should not have occurred. The fire detection cable has two twisted conductor wires with a meltable insulator between the two and when heated, the insulator softens and the two conductors touch resulting in an alarm condition. After fixing all of the defective segments of wire there were not any more false alarms.

Helicopters that had to spend the night due to the sudden weather changes would be tied down to the 6-by truck and caterpillar vehicle. We hauled gasoline from the storage area to the helicopter-pad using the weapons carrier or the tracked amphibious personnel carrier. Gasoline from the 55 gallon drums was pumped into the choppers using a hand operated pump. Our jeep was out of commission most of the year due to a faulty engine. A new engine was delivered with the ships cargo and I do not recall when the jeep got back on the road. The only road, lead from the site building past the helicopter pad and down to the water.

With 17 military and 3 to 5 civilians for operating the power systems, the military personnel doubled and tripled on job duties. My primary function was Radar Maintenance, however I also did much of the orderly room work. When Hoot Gibson left the Island I ran the stock room until a replacement arrived. It was not too difficult to realize that everyone on the Island had to pull together to help each other and to keep actively busy. This message was conveyed during my first night at the site went after checking in and settling in my room, one of the airmen came to get me to play volley ball in the motor-pool area. During the year everyone helped others. I kept busy by volunteering to learn how to operate the power generator controls and would fill in for the regular crew. I also cooked meals. We had one cook for many months and he never had time off from having to cook three meals a day. We pitched in and a couple of us would cook. I would cook one to three meals a week and would help by making the ice cream. For a while, once a week I would make pizza; not like Dominos nor like Pizza Hut or anyone else’s, but it was edible.

We used to trade food items with other islands. This trading would take several weeks because of the transportation situation, but it worked. At the Christmas holiday meal I made Spumoni ice cream using empty cans of two sizes as molds to create the three ringed desert. Our Christmas tree was the center pole of the mess hall which we decorated with ornaments. When it came to haircuts, there were one or two airmen that tried their hand at it. With time they became pretty good barbers. The barber shop was setup in the latrine and only once a week, or so. Being innovative is one trait most of the guys had.

When the summer supplies arrived, via ship, we had loads of stuff to store. The hallways and motor pool and generator room were filled with cartons. The motor pool was filled, and we received many sheets of plywood. I used a few sheets of the plywood to construct a workbench console for the radar tower. I designed the console, cut all the pieces in the motor pool and then put it all together in the tower. As it turns out in later life I designed cargo and ballast control consoles and systems for off-shore drill rigs and tanker ships.

The F-89 Scorpion jet pilots from Goose would visit us once in a while, buzzing the site. They were impressive in the closeness to the ground and to the tower that they would fly. The tower was connected to the main building by an enclosed hallway which was above ground (i.e.: when outside you could look under the hallway). On one occasion I was outside when the planes came and looking under the hallway I saw one of the planes fly by. He was not very high from the ground, even considering the terrain’s slope down from the building.

Since I helped our radar operators in their shift work, I had to learn some of the communication skills they had: such as A is Able and C is Charlie; also how to call in the tracks and how to determine the weather conditions. I did have a problem to determine how high the clouds were, and to determine the visibility distance. We had a wind direction unit on the roof, however to see it we would step out onto the tower’s catwalk - no matter what the weather. Sometimes it was so foggy the roof unit could not be seen and at other times the wind/snow was unbearable. I designed and built a wind direction unit made from an empty can and nails for the commutator, which operated a remote indicator. I located the wind direction unit on the roof near the anemometer. The wind direction was indicated by a light unit I had made with 8 lights in a compass position. The light box was located in the PPI operations center that we built in the center of the tower during October 1958. The wind direction unit worked quite well while I was there, and that device as well as other tasks that I had performed were recognized and I was awarded to be one of the 922nds Airman of the Month. It would be interesting to hear how long the wind direction indicating system had worked. The Operations center also had a Plotting board and a console for the radio. By the way, we were "Rosewater Operations" center. We also had a heating duct made from beer cans which were soldered together. The duct was run from the Operations center to one of the heating units on the radar deck of the tower. I recall that we used the heater that was near the dehumidifier units. The dehumidifiers were used to keep the moisture out of the radome.

On a quick trip to Cartwright for reasons forgotten, I do recall spending the better time of one entire night in the sites radio station studio spinning records and taping them for Cut Throat. I returned to Cut Throat with several tapes (on the 7 inch reels - remember those??). I am sure that Ken Jones would have done a better job than I.

One of the radio operators was a HAM operator and he would spend time on that system. Short wave and regular broadcasting stations provided most of our media information. We kept a record of the commercial stations that we could receive, and even if we could only hear the station for a short time it made the list. I recently found the list, which contains sixty eight (68) stations including those from Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, St. Johns, St. John, Goose Bay, Halifax, London, Washington DC, Kansas, Florida, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Nebraska and California. The success in our receiving these stations is due to the efforts of Zero (Jim Francis) and his unique antennas.

Then there was the night that we picked-up conversations from a flight coming in from Europe carrying the USO entertainment troops. Zero jumped in and talked to Bob Hope and without delay Bob and Jerry Colonna and one or two female entertainers, (I could guess their names, but I might be wrong), put on a radio show for us and for the Goose air controllers. We taped the show and I have that tape on the old seven inch open tape reel. This show may have been recorded by Cartwright and others that were tuned in at the time.

Remember the IBM electric typewriter? I mean the old style that looked like a mechanical typewriter, but had a hammer assist revolving belt under the keys. That device gave us some problems and I had to become a typewriter repair person. The troposcatter communications system was still being installed while I was there, and it started to work around the time I left.

I find in the Pinetree Line website of "memories" provided by other persons that were on Cut Throat that there is concern about the drinking. A curious lay-person might well ask where did they get the booze? Well it all starts with the summer delivery of goods and supplies. The summer that I was on the island we had delivered to us, compliments of the government, approximately 1500 cases of beer. Realize that we were fewer than 25 persons, which would mean that there would be at least 60 cases per person per year. We sold the beer at the mess hall "bar" and with the collected money we purchased bottled alcohol from Goose, via the chopper runs. We also used the money to buy things for the site. One big item that was bought by the airmen was the inboard motor boat that we used for fishing trips and visiting to the adjacent island that was used for commercial fishing and salting of cod.

Speaking of money, we got paid in cash when the paymaster visited us. There was limited coinage at the site, to which none of us ever gave second thought until there was a coin shortage. It happened that I would place coins found in my pockets at the end of a day into a bottle. I was keeping nickels and dimes - nothing big. The bottles were about half full when Captain Jenne asked me if I would cash in the coins because I had every nickel and dime on the island.

When I left Labrador in April 1959, so did Larry Pearsall. Larry and I were transferred to Gray AFB in Killeen Texas where we had two gap filler sites, one in Schulenburg and the other in Normangee to fill in for the prime radar at Killeen. Larry and I, as probably Ken and Duane, were discharged in January 1961, just a few months before Cut Throat was closed. Ironically, our discharge also coincided with the closing of the Radar detachment at Gray AFB. In the short four years that we were in the Air Force, the radar technology advanced so rapidly that gap fillers were obsolete. However our memories last forever.

Quoting from a Labrador brochure dated 1957 (Newfoundland Tourist Development Office):

For the readers of this page, a bit of trivia: