In an attempt to obtain historical articles based on personal memories I put together 20 or so questions – and ask for answers. When I receive the answers, I normally extract the information and complete an article.
In the case of Spotted Island – well, in my mind – finding someone who served at this location is somewhat similar to "finding a white jelly bean on your front lawn, after a six foot snowfall".
Dewey Larson served a one year tour at Spotted Island between April 1958 and March 1959. Ironically enough, he served at this location during the same time period as Ken Jones. Rather than extract his responses, I have decided to provide this detail in a question and answer format.
Question 1: - At what USAF location were you serving when you were advised of your transfer to Canada?
Answer 1: - I went through the Radar School at Keesler AFB, MS – June 1957 to February 1958. Ken Jones and I had met at the end of Basic Training at Lackland AFB, TX, and we hit it off right away. After Basic, we met again at Keesler. Six of us were in the same barracks there and we hung out together. Out of our class of 16, four were selected to go "remote" to Labrador. Ken Jones and I went to Spotted Island. Joe Gagliardi went to Cut Throat Island and Larry Piersall went to Fox Harbour. Joe and Larry were both from the Northeast US while Ken and I were from the Midwest – Iowa and Illinois, respectively.
Question 2: - Did you volunteer for this overseas tour, or were you "volunteered"?
Answer 2: - We did NOT volunteer for Labrador.
Question 3: - What was your rank at that time?
Answer 3: - We were all A/3C’s coming out of Keesler.
Question 4: - What was your AFSC at that time (Communications Officer, Engineer ?)
Answer 4: - I seem to recall that our AFSC was 30352G; which specified the FPS-14, Gap Filler.
Question 5: - How did you travel from the USA to Canada and onwards to your final destination?
Answer 5: - From McGuire AFB, we boarded a MATS C-118, which was a DC-6 in the commercial world. That took us to Goose Bay Labrador, where we had to process in. I think we were there only a few days. From there, we split up and Ken and I got on a H-21 helicopter (the flying banana) for Cartwright. We spent a few days at Cartwright doing processing and then took another H-21 to Spotted Island.
Question 6: - Were you transferred directly to the Gap Filler site at Spotted Island, or were you initially transferred to Cartwright, only to be subsequently selected by Cartwright to proceed to Spotted Island?
Answer 6: - As far as I recollect, we were selected for Spotted Island right from the beginning.
Question 7: - Can you please describe the situation on Spotted Island (i.e. approximate size of the Island)? Was the Gap Filler site the only sign of inhabitants or was there a small village nearby?
Answer 7: - I don’t have any recollection of our initial impression of Spotted. After we got situated and were able to explore around, I would say it was quite an impressive piece of ROCK. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it. The Island was about 1 ½ miles at its widest and about 3 ½ miles in length. The Radar Site was on the highest sport at the north end and the native village was at the south end. Our fuel tank was located about half way in-between, near a small lake. Everything else was tundra. On our half of the Island, there were some steep cliffs going down to the Atlantic Ocean. The village was in a small cove with a sloping sandy beach. There was a small stream from the lake down to the shore. The community outhouse was straddling it just outside the edge of the village. Downstream of it was where they drew their drinking water. The installation consisted of a main building with a dining hall, sleeping quarters, clinic, supply room, motor pool, generating plant, recreation room and kitchen. There was a long corridor leading to the Radar/Radio tower. There was Radio Operations/Maintenance on the ground floor, Radar Operations/Maintenance on the second floor and then the antenna up in the rubber bubble. Going out of the main building, there was a road that led to the "disaster shack" and then to the helicopter pad. It also veered off to the village.
Question 8: - How many USAF personnel served at the Gap Filler station at Spotted Island as per the Unit Manning Document?
Answer 8: - If I remember right, the manning was as follows: USAF – Commander, usually a Captain; 2 Radar Maintenance; 4 Radar Operators; 4 Radio Maintenance; a medic, a cook, a supply man and a Motor Pool Sgt. I can only remember two of the Ops people – Kelly Bane and Donald Devers. The medic was Ron Cole, and the Motor Pool Sgt. was Peters. We had about 3 cooks during our stay. In Supply, we started with an older S/Sgt., and ended up with an A/2C. I remember his enlistment was up in August 1958 but he stayed on almost to Christmas. No one had ever checked it out so he drew per diem for all that extra time.
Question 9: - How many civilians served at the Gap Filler site? If applicable, what type of work did the civilians complete?
Answer 9: - Civilian manning was as follows: 3 Power Plant operators and 1 Radar Tech. Rep. From Canadian Marconi. When the Tropo dishes were installed, an RCA team from New Jersey came in consisting of 4 civilians. The Power Plant guys were Cyril Noseworthy and Jim Reid from St. John’s, NF – and "Frenchy" from Montreal (I think). The CMC Rep. Was Carl Brenton, originally from York, England, but living in Canada. I almost forgot the most important civilian in the place. We had a mascot Husky named "Maniac" – who happened to be the biggest dog on the Island.
Question 10: - I have done my share of time at isolated or remote radar sites and can relate to the way of life when there are 125 or more personnel – but how on earth did you folks survive or pass the time at this location? For starters, I gather that there were only about a dozen or so USAF personnel, and the Commander was the only officer on the site. I am smiling at the moment thinking it must have been easy for a Commander's Call - but surely, having to share a 24 hour day with the same dozen or so people must have been somewhat delicate in those days. It isn't as if you were close to a thriving metropolis with a gazillion places to visit or things to do at the local shopping mall.
Answer 10: - This is a tough question. Back then, there wasn’t all this psychological BS (for lack of a better term) in putting together a group for a remote site like Spotted. We all just seemed to get along. There were plenty of things to occupy our time, both on and off duty. I guess you could say we were versatile. We helped in each others job. Ken took charge of the little Exchange and the Orderly Room functions. I remember helping the Supply guy get his place organized. We all drove trucks when it came time to unload supplies either from the Helos or the ships. We all helped the cook with meals and cleanup. One of the highlights was taking the garbage to the dump and feeding the pack of wild dogs (thrown out by the natives because they weren’t good sled dogs). The only negative thing that comes to mind is the deck of marked cards we found left from one of the guys after he rotated back to the States. We went fishing with the natives, and some of the guys went hunting with them also. We took the track vehicle out into the tundra on occasions. In the snow season, the natives would take us out on their dog sleds. We had sort of a makeshift club where we could sell beer and, when we had it, some hard booze. Our beer was Budweiser that had been sitting in a Conex Box in the weather for years. When a can was opened, it was ¾ foam and ¼ drinkable fluid. The only hard stuff was a few bottles of Ballantine Scotch that we got the chopper pilots to bring out. Once – when Captain Wheeless went back to Goose for his flying stint, we gave him $400 to bring back an assortment of booze. He drank up most of the $400 and only brought back a few bottles. And that was back when a 40 pounder cost two bucks. Lt. Langley was his replacement for that period. He brought some bottles of Chanti wine with him to go with the pizza makings. He came out to site a few other times too, but I can’t remember the reason. Wheeless was a "DUD", but Langley was good people. To sum up the relevance of the Commander, he was just a figure head. All in all, I can’t remember one significant bad thing about my time at Spotted.
Question 11: - I understand that the parent AC&W Squadron at Cartwright had a radar display of what you folks carried on your AN/FPS-14 search radar. With this in mind, what need would there have been for the radar operator AFSC? I can understand a need for radar and communications technicians, but why the need for radar operators?
Answer 11: - Since we weren’t automated, we called our sitings into Cartwright via radio. We occupied one of the blind spots in their display. I really can’t think of any real threatening siting we may have had. Mostly it was the local mail plane coming in from Black Tickle. We did spot Bob Hope’s plane coming back from Europe after his USO Tour of 1957/58. We actually contacted it on the radio and talked to him and Jerry Colona.
Question 12 - Was the gap filler considered as 24 hour manning with someone at the scopes at all times, or was it more or less a daytime operation complex?
Answer 12: - Scopes were manned around the clock. When one of the Ops folks wanted time off, someone would fill in for him. We would also fill in for one of the Power Plant guys when they wanted a break. Of course, since they were drawing civilian pay, they would pay us in cash.
Question 13: - What recreational facilities were available on the unit?
Answer 13: - We had a pool table; no slate so we used plywood for the base. We also had a ping-pong table and a couple of dart boards. We played bridge, poker, rummy and one Newfie game I wish I could remember how it went. The only thing I remember is that the 5 of whatever is designated trump is the high card. We became very proficient at all the games.
Question 14: - What did you do in your off duty hours?
Answer 14: - See 13 above.
Question 15: - Did you ever get out of Spotted Island on R&R during your tour there or did you remain on location for the entire duration of your tour?
Answer 15: - Jim Reid and I went back to Goose somewhere around Christmas holidays of 1958. He had an allergic reaction to diesel fuel and I had a scalp infection. We spent a couple of days in the Goose hospital and then had to wait for the weather to clear up so the helicopter could get away. I think we did get to look around Goose for a while. Of course, there was so much snow that we used the tunnels to get from one place to another. I can’t remember that we even got outside at all. I don’t think anyone else ever left the site, except for Wheeless on his "flying booze trip".
Question 16: - What was the weather like in this location?
Answer 16: - COLD!! I remember the temperature got down to 47 degrees below zero (F). There was lots of snow in the winter. We had to manually clear 20 foot snow drifts to get the vehicles out of the motor pool. Seems to me that we jury-rigged a blade on the forklift to clear the road to the Helo Pad. One time we had to shut down the radar because the wind was gusting over 100 MPH. The anemometer had blown down and Ken Jones went out to put it back up so we could keep track of the wind. We tied a long rope to him so we could get him back in case of an accident. A few times, the weather was so bad that the supply chopper couldn’t leave, so we had to secure them to various vehicles. And then the ice hit. I remember being out on the pad chipping ice off the choppers with the hose of a Herman-Nelson heater stuck up the back of my parka. Who says salt water doesn’t freeze? The summer season was full of mosquitoes and black flies. We had net helmets so they wouldn’t fly into our mouths. When we went fishing with the natives, it didn’t seem so bad out on the open sea.
Question 17: - Comments on the food?
Answer 17: - I think we had 3 different GI cooks during our tour. One was named Perkins and Ken and I had to help him cut down the recipes from his GI cookbook, which was set for a hundred people, and we were 25 (roughly). Another one was named Ivory Golden. He was there over Thanksgiving of November 1958. We got "sea-packed" Turkeys and he had to boil the salt off them for days before he could bake them. I think he put together an excellent meal. The only thing I can remember about the other cook was that he was from Arizona. As I said before, we all helped in the kitchen, giving any/all of them our expertise. One very vivid experience was the "late breakfast" we had after the movie. I think Ken and I were the cooks for the eggs and etc. We cracked the eggs over the grill, and little partially formed checks, complete with feathers, came out of the shell. We took 5 crates of 30 dozen eggs each to the dump. The wild dogs had a feast. When the natives got some salmon in their cod nets, they would share them. Salmon Steaks – one inch thick and broiled in butter – that was some good eating. Joe Krupulis was the expert on that meal. Then there was Lt. Langley’s Pizza nights, but I think I’ve already covered that. Again, I can’t remember anything bad enough to stick in my mind. Seems that we did very well in the chow department.
Question 18: - Comments on drinking? Was alcohol considered a problem?
Answer 18: - I don’t think there were any problems with booze. Sgt. Peters did go down to the village once and he hung one on with the natives. They made potato beer. I don’t think I ever tasted it though. The natives used to come up and watch the movies with us, and partake, but nobody ever got bombed. They all made it back down to the village without a DWI. One of the Ops guys decided he could overcome the desires of alcohol by drinking more than he could handle. I think that lasted about two nights, and resulted in a very large hangover. Captain Wheeless asked the "Chaplain" for a second shot of wine during Communion one time – and the priest that came up once took a couple of glasses of Scotch back to his room after services. When I was back at Goose, I had picked up a case of Captain Morgan black rum for our Radar Tech. Rep. He shared that stuff with anyone who would dare drink it. I think he still had some left when I rotated in March of 1959. As I said before, the beer was out in the weather and you were lucky to get half a glass out of the can when you opened it.
Question 19: - Comments on entertainment? USO shows - if any? Movies - if any?
Answer 19: - Other than the detail I have already mentioned, we did get movies in on our supply choppers. We had two GI issue Bell and Howell projectors. One worked, and the other one – well Ken and I ordered parts and we finally got it working. Uncle Sam wouldn’t let us order a new one and junk the old one. They were supposed to be sequenced so the movie would not be interrupted but that was something we couldn’t do anything about. Like the Radar, it was strictly a manual operation. When the weather was very bad one time, we were stuck with the same two movies for about a month. We did everything conceivable to the reels of film to try and make some sort of entertainment. We even showed them backward. I can still remember two of the films. One was Gene Kelly as a single parent in France with his little daughter. They paired up with a French woman and her son somehow or other. The two kids got lost chasing after a balloon and they ended up going all over the countryside. The other film was a very bad "B" western. The only part I remember is when one of the outlaws tells the others that "the fatbacks in the frying pan". We finally did get one of the Bob Hope USO shows on film – but only one reel of it.
Question 20: - Comments on mail delivery - in and out?
Answer 20: - We got mail whenever the chopper could get in with the other supplies. I think I got my January 59 Birthday Cake in late February. It was pretty dry as I remember, but we all had a piece or a crumb.