Historical Narrative
2401 Aircraft Control and Warning Unit (Aux) Montreal, PQ.
1 June 1956 to 30 November 1956
2 - 3 Jun 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. Three live intercepts and 53 synthetic are completed.
7 Jun 56
Group Commanders' Inspection is held. There first is an inspection parade held in the drill hall of 438 Squadron and then the Group Commander and his staff proced to 2401 Squadron to make inspection of all sections.
9 - 10 Jun 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. No live intercepts are carried out because of lack of aircraft due to bad weather. 77 synthetic are completed.
15 Jun 56
Summer Camp starts and it is planned to be extended to 15 Sep to give everyone an opportunity to attend.
16 - 17 Jun 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. Four live intercepts and 33 synthetic are carried out.
21 Jun 56
Local training comes to an end, that is for trainees. Staff officers will still be reporting on many Tuesdays and Thursdays to prepare for next fall training.
During the Summer period, a complete re-organization of the Operations Room is undertaken. It involves a re-arrangement of the radar equipment into different rooms according to a revised floor plan. Partitions will have to be filled in, windows blackened and workshop equipment moved. This part of the work is expected to last until the end of July, at which time the new telephone system (Ops Room) will be installed.
1 Jul 56
5 Airmen Ftr COp 1 (O) are posted to Regular Force Radar Stns for contact training during the months of July and August. Four are posted to Stn St Sylvestre and one to Station Mont Apica.
Four officers of this squadron are promoted to F/L: FO's Butcher, Daley, Fletcher and Ford.
The results of April Qualifying Examinations are promulgated: out of 26 FO's who wrote GSK, 14 passed and out of 30 who wrote Trade, 23 passed. One F/L attempted Trade exam and passed.
Phase II of RTTP training has started. Out of 77 who were orginally enrolled, 67 have qualified for Phase II. Six Regular Force airmen have been posted to the Squadron as instructors for July and August.
F/L Carruthers, Med/MO, is transferred to this Squadron from 4004 MU (Aux), London, and will replace S/L Peloquin as SMO, this latter having requested transfer to the Supplementary Reserve.
Aug 56
At the end of August, from the 67 trainees who undertook Phase II of RTTP training, 53 remain on strength and attempt their Trade Board to remuster to Group 1 (O). All 53 pass successfully, 10 obtaining a score of more than 80% and 30 a score higher than 70%. Twenty-seven apply for transfer to the Auxiliary.
Sep 56
The Radar Maintenance team from Trenton, Ont spend the first two weeks of Sep at the Sqn to do overhaul of Radar and Synthetic equipment.
6 Sep 56
Fall training starts. However, it is impossible to resume operations training before 1 Oct as the new telephone installation will not be completed before then.
15 Sep 56
End of Summer Camp. A total of 52 FtrC's and 19 FtrCOps and 15 Admin, Technical and Medical personnel have attended. Officers working toward their Phase I were employed at Ftr COp duties for familiarization of work at this level. Officers working toward Phase II were employed and evaluated on Synthetic Lead Collision Type Intercepts. The Controllers working towards their Phase III check out were employed in Surveillance, Duty Controller, Fighter Marshall and Intercept Controller. Some of these officers were also employed in ADCC to have them become familiar with operations at that level.
Airmen and Airwomen Ftr COps were assigned to Regular Force crews and received contact training in the different positions necessary, depending on their experience at that time.
A total of 700 synthetic and 146 live intercepts (LCC) were completed during the summer camp.
22 - 23 Sep 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. Two live interceptions and 12 synthetic are carried out.
28 - 29 Sep 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. 42 live and 30 synthetic intercepts are completed.
6 - 8 Oct 56
A crew of Auxiliary Officers arrive on Friday night in order to be able to start training early Saturday morning. 19 live intercepts are carried out.
13 - 14 Oct 56
Weekend at Lac St Denis. 19 live and 60 synthetic intercepts.
19 candidates for the Fighter Controller Course have passed the Officer's Board and it is expected that authority for enrolment will be received on time to start the new course at the beginning of December.
21 Oct 56
Trade Board Examinations are held. Fifteen airmen and airwomen representing the following trades write: Ftr COp, Rdr PC (G), Clk Typ, and AFP.
Fourteen FtrCs also write their Phase I papers.
20 - 21 Oct 56
Weekend at Lac St Denis. Nil synthetic intercepts are carried out and only 4 live intercepts are completed.
26 - 28 Oct 56
Weekend at Lac St Denis. 15 live intercepts are completed.
2 Nov 56
A Mess Dinner is held at the Squadron. G/C DE Gwinn, MBE, CD, from ADC has been invited as guest speaker. 425 AW (F) Squadron from St Hubert, under command of W/C FW Hillock, are also invited as guests. A few officers from Lac St Denis and from 1 Group HQ are also attending.
4 - 5 Nov 56
Week-end at Lac St Denis. 32 live and 26 synthetic intercepts are carried out.
25 Nov 56
A press conference for this Squadron is held at Lac St Denis. W/C Mitchner, CO of Lac St Denis, G/C MacNair of 1 ADCC, the CO and staff officers of this squadron and the following representatives of the Press and Radio/TV are present:
| Mr Dave MacDonald | Herald |
| Mr Lauchie Chisholm | The Gazette |
| Mr Romeo Gariepy | CBC |
| Misses Guay & Boileau | CJMS |
After a short speech of introduction by W/C Mitchner and G/C McNair, the party is given the opportunity of following a synthetic intercept completed by members of 2401 AC&W. After lunch in the Officers' Mess the party is taken for a familiarization tour of the Operations building, when they are given a chance to ask questions to individual Ftr COps. Photographs and a short film were taken.
30 Nov 56
A Dining-In Night for all airmen and airwomen is held in the Combined Mess. S/L AR Mackenzie is invited as guest speaker and talks about his tour of duty in Korea and his imprisonment in Communist China.
(JL Bourke) W/C
Commanding Officer,
2401 AC&WS (Aux).