Armstrong, ON

As was the case with every one of the Pinetree Line long range radar stations, contracts were provided to a number of firms for the construction of the buildings which formed both the Domestic and the Operations sites. Armstrong was no exception.

Construction of the Pinetree Line radar station at Armstrong probably started in 1951 or early 1952. USAF personnel started to arrive in December 1952, and it is safe to assume that the construction of some of the buildings continued well into 1953 before the contractors departed and left the site to the USAF personnel.

The contractor's usually had their own site - reasonably close to the location of the radar station under construction. In every case, the buildings which formed the contractor's camp were usually levelled to the ground within a year or so. It now appears that Armstrong was somewhat unique and that the original contractor's buildings remained intact for the entire life of the radar station.

I served in Armstrong between September 1965 and May 1967 and I was not even aware of where the "contractor's buildings" were originally located. This mystery was recently solved, thanks to Wayne Mather's aerial photo taken in June 1957. The original contractor's buildings were being used for a number of purposes such as the Station Theatre, MIR, and Supply Section during my tour at Armstrong. Indeed - very few RCAF personnel would have known that this portion of the station was once the original contractor's buildings. This knowledge clarifies that the so called "original contractor's buildings" were kept and used - as opposed to being razed to the ground. There is no doubt that there would have been some renovations during the 22 year life of the radar station - but to the best of my knowledge - Armstrong is "unique" in that it was the only Pinetree Line radar station that incorporated the original contractor's buildings as part of the main domestic site.

Comments by Bob Davisson - (1952-1953) - The civilian contractors had completed the basic facility; administration, barracks, mess hall, motor pool buildings, the power/heating plant and water/septic waste systems. Only the shells of the radar operations and the communications receiver/transmitter buildings had been completed. In the fall of 1953, as personnel were added to the squadron, a Lieutenant Campbell and a radio maintenance type rigged a transmitter/receiver setup and went on the air with a ham radio station. It was located in one of the civilian contractor buildings which were all still intact. Until then, the buildings stood vacant and unused. What use was made of the contractor complex after I rotated out in December 1953 is unknown to me.

Comments by Bill Steers - (1953-1953) - I arrived in Armstrong Ontario in January 1953 and stayed until April 1953 when I was transferred to site at Pagwa where I was employed until June 1954. Initially my employer was Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a Federal Government agency, whose task it was to supervise the work of the Prime Contractor, Barnett-McQueen of Port Arthur Ontario (since amalgamated with Fort William into Thunder Bay). Defence Construction (1951) Ltd. assumed responsibility for the continuation of the work in 1954, and I was transferred to this body. It was agreed to retain the contractor's temporary buildings following completion of the Pagwa site, which would be used as quasi hotel accomodation for visiting military personnel relatives. This was also the case with the Armstrong site, according to the Resident Engineer of the time, Tony Inderwick.

Comments by Bob Wanner - (1955-1956) - What I remember is that one of the buildings to the left of that photo, I believe it was the second building, was the location of the base Supply Section manned by a Sargent and two airmen. That was in 1955-1956 during the time I was stationed at the 914th. Also, the first building on the right with the outside enclosed staircase was where I was able to gain access to the Photo Lab located on the second floor. I also seem to remember that one of these buildings was used as a motion picture theater. Movies were shown in that building, maybe it was the first building on the left. There were no buildings across the road on the opposite side at that timeframe. There was no Airmen's Rec Center. I believe one of the contractor's buildings was used as a Rec Center. But which one? I'll ask A/1C Davy England who worked in the Supply Section in that second contractors building for additional info. He will be able to recall just what the Supply setup was in 1955-1956.

Comments by Stan Brookshire - (1956-1957) - I recall that we made use of the original contractor's buildings for a Rec Hall, Snack Bar, movie theater, Ham Radio room and my own Flight Engineer Office is the building in the foreground of the pictures. This would verify that at least one or more of the original contractor's buildings were still standing when I was there in 1956-57.

Comments by Wayne Mathern - (1956-1958) - Most of the contractor buildings were retained by the USAF and upgraded while I was stationed there. The large U-shaped building was converted to a recreation center. As I remember, it contained some pool tables and had a snack bar. In one of the wings we had the base radio station. In another of the wings was an auditorium which was used to hold squadron meetings and was used for church services on Sunday. The next H-shaped building was my supply building. We had all of our supply functions located in that building with most of the inventory. There was a small supply of spares located in the operations area but everything was processed through this primary supply/transportation facility in the old contractor buildings. The far H-shaped building was used by our base engineers to support the physical facilities. The house was upgraded in 1956 as a set of quarters for the commander and his family. The central heating building behind the house was also used by the engineers but the base had just completed installing central steam lines from the power plant in the operations area when I arrived in 1956. Therefore, I think the engineers used it for a machine shop. The building below must have been removed before I arrived as I do not remember it. All of the buildings had been covered with white siding similar to the other buildings on the site. All of these buildings were being utilized when I departed in 1958. The area behind the compound with the small buildings and material (on the left in the photo) had been cleared and that area was an open area where we parked our supply and engineer vehicles. This compound was located about 100 yards up the hill to the right of the main gate on the road to the operations area. The road in the background of the photo is the main access road from town and the main gate was located just to the right of the photographed area.