La Macaza, Quebec

Donald M Norrie - This photo of the squadron was taken after completion of the three month course at Hurlbert Field (which is part of Eglin Main AFB) near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It was at Hurlbert Field that the US Army Green Berets carried out their training also. This part of the base was on high ground between two large swamps and it was not unusual to walk out of the barracks in the morning and see a crocodile blocking your way to the mess hall. Poisonous reptiles were everywhere, so on arrival we were given a very extensive briefing on where we should not go. For example; if on the golf course and your ball goes into the rough, you don't go after it unless you want to come face-to-face with a rattlesnake, of which there were many about.

Our course, as I recall, ran from July to mid September 1962 and the temperatures were always in the 90F degrees with the humidity matching the temperature. The officers were in air conditioned quarters; the NCO had a forced air circulating system in their quarters, and us airmen had nothing. Most of the airmen went to the PX and bought a small fan for $2.00 which we attached to the wall over the head of our beds. Laying naked on top of the bed with this small flow of air over our bodies, we were able to get only minimal rest. I still have that fan.

Aside from the extreme heat and humidity we had some good times. The USAF were wonderful hosts and they did everything to make our stay with them as pleasant as possible even taking many of us to their homes for supper. They had their own private military beach and marina where you could rent boats for water skiing or fishing. Many of us learned to water ski for fun, to beat the heat when not working and so we virtually lived on the beach. TGIF beach parties were laid on periodically with food and beer. Schlitz would drive in a cube van, attach two taps to the outside of the van, and we had instant cold and soothing beer. Just help yourself.

There were very few of us that were attached to these missile squadrons during their 10 year reign as the USAF wanted to keep the number of Bomarc qualified foreign nationals to a minimum. You won't find that written anywhere but that approach applied to the Armourers that worked with the nuclear weapons. We were never allowed to take our cameras into the maintenance or missile compound. The security, once nuclear warheads were on the base, was the tightest I have ever seen in my career. Hence there is little to nothing available in the line of private photos of the airmen at work - such as we have seen from activities with F-86 and CF-100 Squadrons. The base was constructed with all the administrative buildings, barracks, family housing, etc accessible to all personnel without restrictions. Then within this area we had a secure "maintenance compound" which required a certain type of pass to enter. The missile compound could only be entered from the maintenance compound and then only with the proper paperwork and passes. Then getting into the respective missile shelters to carry-out routine missile maintenance required another security sequence. When we finally were transferred back to a regular base we thought we had just got released from jail. No more tight security.

The Bomarc gang has held only one reunion, and that was in Ottawa in 1978. A shame really.