Memories of Foymount
RCAF Station Foymount was in the Ottawa valley between Renfrew and Pembroke. The nearest town was Eganville. The life here was very similar to that of my previous posting at Senneterre because the radar stations were pretty well all alike. The job was identical except that our radar here covered a different part of the country. I arrived at Foymount on November 20, 1955.
I don't recall the exact dates, but I had been promoted from AC2 to AC1 (Aircraftsman 1st class) and then to LAC (Leading Aircraftsman). These promotions took place at predetermined times (six months and eighteen months and as long as you had kept your nose clean (no charges against you) you were automatically promoted. With each promotion there was a small raise in pay and a little higher on the totem pole of the discipline line. Mind you, at LAC you weren't senior to very many people.
The station at Foymount was again on top of a hill so the radar had unrestricted vision. I recall that my stay here was in the winter because the road up to the station from below was Defense property and a gravel road. Anyway when you were assigned as Duty Airman (KP duty), if it snowed during the night, the snow plow would plow the road up the hill but we didn't have any automatic sanders. What we had was a truck load of sand and two Duty Airmen in the back spreading the sand. This was one of the more unpleasant jobs that I was lucky enough to have.
This job of Duty Airman, by the way, was something you got saddled with 5 or six times a year. There was always a Orderly Officer, Duty NCO and Duty Airman or Airwoman. This was standard throughout the service at all locations. We did things such as collect meal tickets or money at the Mess Hall for those people who had to pay for their meals, made sure that there were no live cigarette butts left lying around the clubs after they were closed and on some larger stations you had to even peel potatoes. You were always one of the first up in the morning and one of the last to be able to go to bed. On some bases they referred to the Airman's part as a Fire Piquet. You still had some of the same duties but had to sleep in the Fire Hall and would respond with the Fire Fighters if there was a fire. I, thankfully, never had occasion to be on duty when there was a fire.
My stay at Foymount wasn't all that eventful and not very long. One thing I do remember about Foymount is that this is where I took up the art of boxing. This didn't last all that long either. The first time an opponent landed one on my nose I started to bleed like I thought it would never stop. Consequently I never learned much about the art as I never went back into the ring. The boxing was done in the Recreation Centre along with quite a few other sports. The service was always good that way. There was always a sport a person could take up if they wished. We had bowling, rifle shooting, badminton, volleyball, curling, hockey (floor and ice) and just about anything you could think of. There were even a few stations that had golf courses attached. I never became much of a sports figure I'm afraid. Some years later, while stationed in Germany, I did play golf a few times. We used to play Beer Golf. What this was is that as you finished each hole, for each stroke you were over par you had to drink a bottle of beer. Well I wasn't much of a golfer to start with but by the second hole I was worse. My recollection as to how many holes I got to is very vague. There was also Beer Ball that some of the fellows used to play. I don't think I ever got involved but it went something like this. You are up to bat, you make a hit so you run to first base. Now you can't go on to second until you drink a bottle of beer. The same for second base, etc. This again was just an excuse to drink too much beer. Now that I think of it I'm quite lucky I was able to walk away from the booze. There were a few fellows I know that couldn't, and a whole lot that found drinking had to be with them for ever.
As I previously mentioned, my stay in Foymount was quite short. From Foymount I was sent to serve with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in Metz, France. It was July 23, 1956 that this took place.