Revival of Radar Base Could Mean Survival
of Small BC Community
Perched high in the clouds some 1,000 meters above sea level, two giant radar towers cast a shadow of uncertainty over a spit-and-polish military installation on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
Canadian Forces Station Holberg, with a military and civilian population of 650, is among a dying breed of air defence radar stations that once dotted the country every 300 kilometers.
Unlike dozens of others, characterized by geodesic domes that look like giant golf balls, the Holberg long-range radar station is expected to survive. Plans are to make it the coastal link for a new air defence project, agreed to by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and US President Ronal Reagan at their Shamrock Summit in 1985.
What is uncertain is what the project means to those living on the military base and in the nearby logging and fishing community that acts as its service centre.
Updating obsolete equipment will likely mean fewer people that will be needed to operate the station. That has led to speculation that there will be sizable cuts in base personnel, with the operation taken over by civilians or run by remote control with civilian personnel flown in every few weeks to provide maintenance.
"To say anything at this point would be sheer speculation", said Major Bill Penton, base commander. "In the meantime, life in Holberg goes on in the same fashion it always has".
Like other radar bases that formed the so-called Pinetree Line stretching across Canada like a belt around its middle, CFS Holberg was built in the early 1950s as part of the North American air defence agreement with the United States.
Its purpose was to identify Soviet aircraft after they crossed the Distant Early Warning Line in the north.
But technology has left the Pinetree Line years behind the times. Bombers could drop cruise missiles over the Bering Sea without penetrating Canadian airspace. Jet fighters travel so fast that by the time they were picked up on radar, it would be too late.
"The philosophy now is to provide periphery defence" said Penton. "What they look at now is stopping the enemy before they get close. With today’s technology, we don’t want to wait until they get to the Prairies before we identify them".
The equipment at the Holberg station is so outdated it’s become a joke.
A sign at the door of the radio building reads: "Welcome to Holberg radio museum".
Six bays of radio equipment, standing two metres high and about four metres long date from the early 1950s and still use vacuum tubes.
New transistor radios capable of doing the same work could fit into the building’s porch.
The dozen screens in the radar nerve centre aren’t as old. The newest ones date from the early 1970’s.
They can perform much the same functions as modern radar equipment but not as efficiently. The two domed towers - one locates an aircraft and another determines its altitude - could be replaced by a single tower that performs both functions.
The station monitors a 600-kilometre radius which covers the craggy coastline stretching as far south as Victoria and reaching north almost to the Alaskan panhandle.
Information on flights entering Canadian airspace is transmitted to NORAD headquarters at North Bay, Ontario, where it is checked against registered flight plans for identification.
The station also provides civilian services, including searches for lost airplanes and weather reports.
The agreement to modernize air defence includes upgrading Holberg and stations along the DEW Line as well as building new ones. The cost of the total project is estimated at &7 billion, of which Canada will pay 12 percent, or $840 million.
The new line, to be called the North Warning System, will consist of 13 long-range radar stations and 39 unmanned short-range radar stations.
The agreement has meant that a string of bases across Canada has been closed over the last three years as the old Pinetree Line was declared redundant. Some bases, which are self-contained communities including schools, hospitals and recreation centres, have received a second life. One north of Yorkton Saskatchewan, is now a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.
But others have been dismantled and plowed under.
Holberg, about 25 kilometres west of Port Hardy, is accessible only by logging roads.
Its well-equipped hospital, with two military doctors on staff, is the only medical service in the area. It has the only school as well as the only gymnasium, curling rink, bowling alley and swimming pool - all of which non-military residents are free to use.
The military police are the only police in the area and receive just as many calls from hikers using campgrounds along the scenic coastline as they receive from the base.
The civilian community of Holberg, just a few kilometres from the base, is worried about the installation’s uncertain future.
This article was written by Larry Johnsrude of the Canadian Press and it was published in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, September 24, 1988. This article was obtained from the National Archives of Canada in August 1998 for use on the Pinetree Line web site.