Edgar, ON

1. General

It is proposed to outline the activities of 31 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron during the above period under main subject headings.

2. Organization

The unit reached a high state of organization during this period. Most of the major organizational problems were resolved and administration difficulties were levelled off.

The biggest individual administrative difficulty encountered was the lack of adequate accommodation for certain phases of station activities. This subject will be dealt with under the heading of accommodation later on in this report.

Effective 15 May 53, under AFHQ Organization Order 48/52, as amended by AL #5, all personnel of 51 GObC, Barrie, were attached to this unit for pay and materiel accounting. Administrative and functional control of 51 GObC is still exercised by Station North Bay.

3. Personnel

The following executive appointments were made effective 15 September, 1952:

Officers or Civilians of Officer status visiting this station during the period of this report were as listed below:

A course on the FPS 3 and its maintenance commenced at this station on 20 May 53, covering a six week training period. One Officer, 2 Senior NCO’s, 12 NCO’s, 7 Cpls. And 5 aircraftmen reported for training.

4. Security

Security on the administration site is difficult to enforce due to the lack of fencing around the camp area, but there is strict control maintained over all personnel entering the station through the guard house gate. On 30 Apr 53, the station guard house was transferred to the area which will, eventually, be where the permanent guard house will be built. The station guard house at present being used is a Piggot Construction Company shack which is now converted to meet present requirements.

Security at the operations building is very strictly enforced. Only those personnel who are security cleared and who are required to enter therein on Service duty are permitted entrance to this building. A "button" system has been set up which permits an efficient control of personnel entering or leaving the building. The only difficulty regarding the security of this building is the inadequacy of the fencing around the area occupied by the operations building and the two towers. The fence is built on a sand base and it would be a comparatively simple matter for one with ill intentions to burrow a way under the fence and gain admission to this restricted area. This deficiency has been pointed out to ADC HQ and, it is understood, that corrective action is being taken to remedy it.

Security police and Commissionaires as provided on establishment are barely enough to ensure adequate security, but when the Security Police establishment is only slightly over 50% filled, it can be seen that this matter causes a great deal of concern to those responsible for station security. Despite the number of time this has been reported to higher authority, the situation still exists. It is not intended that these comments be interpreted as criticism of a higher formation, but the fact exists that there will be inadequate security until this situation is corrected. The pressure on Security Police personnel and Commissionaires is very heavy and is having a very adverse affect on their morale. Unfortunately, due to the small number of airmen on this station, it is difficult to supplement the Security Police with detailed airmen from other trades.

5. Discipline

The discipline on the station has, generally, been a very high standard. There was a period, during the time that it was necessary to misemploy a large number of personnel, that discipline was not so good as it is now, but this situation has been corrected.

The following is a summary of disciplinary cases heard and disposed of during the period of this report:

6. Supply

The supply section is operating quite efficiently, with a sub stores consisting of electronics spares located in the operations building.

The only general source of complaint regarding supplies on this station is the inability to secure such small items as stationery, cleaning materials, toilet tissue, etc. This may seem like a minor item and not worthy of mention, but it is definitely causing dissatisfaction on the part of the clerical and cleaning staffs who must have these articles in order to efficiently carry out their duties. The fault for this shortage is not one which the station supply section can correct. It appears to be due to the lag in fulfillment of demands by #1 Supply Depot.

7. Accommodation

This problem, as referred to in the last station historical record, has not yet been corrected and is causing a great deal of concern to those officers who are responsible for ensuring that a high standard of efficiency is maintained in their sections.

The construction of the station administration building has not yet started, although it is understood that it is now past planning stages and should be let out to contract very shortly. At present, due to lack of other space, the administration HQ is located in one of the wings of Barrack Block #2, designed as NCO’s quarters (female). The use of this space has made it necessary to crowd airwomen and airmen into remaining barrack blocks at 8 per room (large size rooms) and 4 per room (small size rooms). It has been necessary to have airwomen move into the upper portion of Barrack Block #1, which was not meant to be occupied by airwomen. The end result of this lack of adequate accommodation for airwomen is the planned construction (next year) of extensions to existing quarters. This would relieve the cramped situation now existing.

As a result of overcrowding, it was necessary to eliminate officers and senior NCO’s quarters. There are no single senior NCO’s quarters now at all. Single male officers are temporarily being housed in PMQ #26. Single female officers are being housed in the station school in two of the rooms designed as quarters for single school teachers.

During the Auxiliary summer camp period, plans are underway to use the facilities of the Piggott Construction Company, the station hobby shop and the station school for housing male and female Auxiliary personnel.

Approximately $2,500.00 will have to be spent on Piggotts Construction Company billets to make them habitable but it is anticipated that this sum will be allotted without too much difficulty as permanent accommodation in barrack blocks will just not be available.

The recreational building is practically complete now and will be available for take over by approximately 3 Jun 53. The provision of this building with its many facilities will be a boom to both single and married personnel. It has been most difficult to offer much recreation in the way of sports to station personnel due to the lack of a sports centre, with the result that many personnel have been spending too much of their leisure hours in the wet canteen, due to the absence of any alternative location in which to while away their free time.

Of the 65 PMQ’s in the married site, all have been allocated except the one now used as quarters for single officers. These houses were allocated strictly on a points basis, with the result that an amazing situation has developed where there have been no "beefs" whatsoever by those who could not obtain "PMQ’s". Those not allotted PMQ’s have not experienced too much difficulty in securing alternative civilian accommodation elsewhere.

The Station Hospital was taken over by the RCAF on 25 Jan 53. This building was in very good condition on hand-over, and has served a most useful purpose.

It is understood that a new Fire Hall is on the project books and that an extension is to be placed on the ME Section. These will be a great asset as present accommodation for these two sections is most inadequate.

The accommodation provided in the Combined Mess is considered to be adequate from both a messing and canteen/mess point of view. There are a number of things which could have been improved upon when the building was first constructed, such as provision of three sinks for each bar (the minimum health requirement) and adequate shelving in each bar. The lack of shelving in the Airmen’s Canteen bar is causing some concern, as it is impossible to properly display the many varieties of merchandise for sale. Steps will be taken locally to correct this situation by providing money from Station fund for construction of this needed shelving.

The operations building was taken over by the RCAF on 30 Apr 53. Generally speaking, the accommodation is satisfactory, but it is too early yet to pass comment as to whether it is completely suitable accommodation in all respects.

8. Medical and Dental Services

Generally, the medical and dental services provided to RCAF personnel on this station are satisfactory.

Personnel are only admitted to the station sick bay for minor sicknesses. If operations or specialist treatment are required, they are referred to Sunnybrook Military Hospital.

Dental treatment is given by RCDC officer who spends one month in every three at this station. During the period the RCDC officer is away from the station, dental treatment is provided by the RCDC detachment at Camp Borden.

The following is a summary of sick parades and admissions during the period 1 Dec 52 to 31 May 53:

9. Chaplain Services

Church services (RC & Protestant) held, for first time, on the station in the station school on 16 Jan 53.

The above accommodation is actually adequate for those RC’s and Protestant who are regular church attenders, but the atmosphere of a church is not there and this excuse, coupled with the hours at which services are held due to inability to obtain part-time chaplains at the hours when it would be best to have church services, has reduced attendance to a very fine point.

It must surely have been a mistake to have overlooked the construction of a combined chapel on such stations as this, where local church facilities are not easily accessible. Until such time as a chapel is provided, no appreciable increase in church attendance can be anticipated. The provision of a chapel is not necessarily the solution to poor church attendance but it is, at least, a contributing factor.

Active church committees have been formed and are doing an excellent job under adverse circumstances. The location for church services will, after completion of the recreational building, be the station theatre, which also is not considered to be a good substitute for a proper chapel.

10. Accounting Services

The Accounting services at this unit are of a very high standard.

Despite adverse staff problems, reports by Command SOAF have been most complimentary.

This high standard of efficiency has been brought about however, by excessive overtime on the part of the accounting staff.

11. Messing

A reasonably good standard of messing is now being maintained on this station. However, this cannot be anticipated to last indefinitely unless some additional NCOs are made available to the NCO i/c Messing in the near future. The burden of administration and supervision of cooking cannot possibly be done efficiently by the one NCO now on strength.

For a period of time, the quality of messing did fall off as a result of the RCASC at Camp Borden having to dispose of surplus frozen meats to all military messes. However, the really only genuine complaint which can be made against rations supplied are the eggs which are not of good quality. This has been taken up time and again with the RCASC without much satisfaction.

12. Messes and Institutes

The messes and institutes are being operated in an efficient manner by the committees responsible for their performance.

The main problem encountered in administering these organizations is insufficient bar steward help. Three Service stewards only are provided to operate a Central Warehouse, Airmen’s Canteen, Officer’s Mess and Sergeant’s Mess. Only by the use of misemployed airmen has it been possible to keep operations going at all. Now with misemployed personnel no longer available, it is imperative that AFHQ provide the 4 lounge cleaners provided on establishment, who can be employed part-time as bar stewards.

As referred to in section 7 of this report, adequate shelving is not available in the bars of the various mess/institutes and three sinks are necessary in each bar to meet minimum military requirements.

Rules for the operating of the Airmen’s and Airwomen’s Lounge, Officer’s Mess and Sergeant’s Mess have been drawn up and are strictly enforced. Breaches of regulations are handled in accordance with the seriousness of the offences.

13. Entertainment and Welfare

Only one application for assistance from the RCAF Benevolent Fund has been made since this unit’s inception and this application was so complicated that the Benevolent Fund could not be of any assistance to the applicant.

An excellent Christmas party was held for children of married personnel on 21^st December 52. A gift was available for each child up to the age of 14. Ice cream, candies and a Christmas stocking were provided to each child.

On Christmas day, the officers and NCOs of the station served Christmas dinner to the airmen and airwomen and put on a skit for their entertainment.

A very successful New Year’s station dance was held on 31^st Dec/1^st Jan. The party was well organized and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Skating parties were laid on throughout the skating season for all single and married personnel at the Guthrie Arena.

The station entered a hockey team in the local league and managed to make the play-offs but were finally eliminated by the Guthrie team.

A station Valentine’s dance was held on 14 February.

A station St. Patrick’s Day dance was held on 17 March.

Station bingos were held at regular intervals throughout the winter months and two Millionaire’s Nights held which proved to be a good financial venture.

Two roller skating parties were held at the Orillia arena during the winter months and proved to be quite a drawing card.

Recreational runs (for swimming) were laid on two nights per week during the winter months. Average attendance per night was 25 airmen or airwomen.

A station wiener roast was held on 16 May 53, to which all personnel (single and married) were invited to attend.

Two films per week were screened in the Snack Bar Lounge of the Airmen’s Lounge. When the recreational hall is completed, these twice weekly films will be shown in the station theatre.

Inter-mess games competitions were held, up to the end of May, between the three messes for a special trophy donated by the Sergeant’s Mess. These competitions fostered good feeling between all ranks.

The station skating rink has not yet been completed but should be ready early in the summer and will, undoubtedly, be used extensively during the following winter.

Two women’s and one men’s ball teams have been organized on the station and are entered in local leagues. A great deal of interest has been roused in their activities.

The above is only a brief resume of entertainment on the station and does not include individual mess or institute functions.

The morale on this station is of a very high order, as all personnel are cognizant of the fact that those in positions of responsibility are doing their best to round out their off duty hours by good, clean, entertainment, within the limits of resources available.

14. Mobile Equipment

No ME accidents were recorded during the period of this report, which is a record of which we may be justly proud.

Some difficulties were encountered with snow clearances due to lack of certain types of snow clearing equipment and a sander but this was remedied towards the end of the winter season. It was necessary to clear a part of the country roads adjoining to station to permit accessibility to the RX and TX sites and to permit civilian employees to get to and from work.

Lack of adequate accommodation facilities for ME vehicles is still a crucial problem, but it is believed that this situation is under investigation at higher level and should ultimately be corrected.

15. Communications

The lack of switchboard facilities has caused a great deal of inconvenience. Three Barrie lines with extensions provide communications outside the station but even they are entirely unsatisfactory as they are continually overloaded with incoming and outgoing calls. An internal field telephone system has been put into operation which partially relieves this situation.

16. Construction Engineering

A very efficient and hard working CE section has improved the facilities and general appearance of this station immeasurably.

Many projects are still in hand or planned, but it can be safely predicted that, from a CE point of view, this station is as advanced or more advanced than other AC&W Squadrons who have been activated much longer than 31 AC&W Squadron.

Grass cutting on a station such as this has presented quite a problem and has resulted in the hiring of additional help from the yearly maintenance grant to meet the extra commitment.

Snow clearance, which is the responsibility of the CEO, was handled quite efficiently during the winter months despite the lack, for some time, of suitable snow fighting equipment.

A lapse between submission of A for P’s and formal approval is sometimes quite lengthy. It is considered that some speed-up action along this line is necessary.

17. Operations

F/S Finley organized the FCO of the unit into five classes for Trade Advancement lectures. The refresher course and introduction to ADC Operational techniques started on the 7^th January 1953 and ran through until the end of February.

In early February S/L Chodat, Senior Controller arrived prior to leaving for Tyndall AFB USAF for Fighter Controllers course. On the 16 February S/L Cairns of 3 ADCC, Scarborough visited the unit.

On 4 March F/L Shore arrived to take over the operation section until S/L Chodat returned from course. From the 28 to 30 March flight trials were carried out on the AN/FPS-3 search radar.

S/L Chodat arrived back from his course on 20 April. During this month a number of trained and untrained Controllers were transferred to the unit.

May 7 the GCI Operations staff moved into the main operations building and the controllers toured our building. A party of American Officers (Air Force) visited on May 8 and toured the building.

FCO crews 1, 2 & 3 on 11 May commenced training on the new equipment, after first taking a familiarization tour. The following week crews 4, 5, 6 & 7 commenced training in the operations building, 1^st May 53, the ISG 98 installation was complete and on 25 May FPS-3 was put on an operational 24 hours basis.

18. General

Transportation for living-out personnel and civilian employees to and from this station has been somewhat of a problem, but this has been alleviated somewhat by arranging for a bus company to operate daily from Barrie to this station, at scheduled hours, and a similar arrangement was made for a bus company to operate between this station and Orillia. This is the best that can be done as Service transport and drivers are not available to meet this transportation need.

This unit has not experienced too much difficulty in obtaining its requirements for civilian employees to fill established positions. The biggest and most exasperating problem is to obtain authority from Treasury Board to fill the positions. Even though a unit establishment authorizes a certain number of civilian employees, hiring against these positions cannot be carried out until position numbers are released by Treasury Board. As a result, a good number of potential employees are lost as they do not intend to wait around for a potential period of time while waiting for a position number to be released to the unit. Something should be devised to streamline this very awkward and time-wasting system, as there is too much competition for such employees as clerks and cooks to have any time lag between the time a position number is requested to the time it is received back.

19. Conclusion

It is felt that this station has made remarkable good progress in its last 8 ½ months of operation, despite certain handicaps which inevitably arise on a new station. All sections are cooperating to the full to make this the best of all the AC&W Squadrons and results achieved appear to indicate that their efforts are not in vain.

Prepared by:

(RE Patterson) F/L
CAdO

Submitted:

(HC Vinnicombe) W/C
Commanding Officer
31 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron
Edgar, Ontario