Memories of Hopedale
1958-1959
Fred Bradford
I arrived in Hopedale as a young A/2c in March of 1958. I was right out of Tech School where I had I graduated from Ground Radio Repair HF but was cross-trained to Ground to Air as soon as I got to Hopedale.
I volunteered for Hopedale as it was a short tour of duty and I was madly in love and I wanted to get married. On a side note, I can advise you that I am still madly in love and married to the same girl. In fact we are renewing our marriage vows in November, 1999 on our 40th anniversary.
I volunteered for Hopedale when I graduated from Tech School at Scott AFB, IL. - I believe this was the 3724th Training Squadron in ATC. When I checked into McGuire AFB for shipment to Goose Bay, the girl at the counter looked at my orders and said, "Oh, You are going to Harmon's Whore House". When I asked what she meant she just smiled and said, "You will find out". I did - some guys got caught with a whore in the Tx building and were busted for it. T/Sgt. Harmon was the NCOIC of that building but he wasn't involved so he kept his rank.
Travel to Hopedale was somewhat routine. I flew in a DC-6 from McGuire AFB, NJ to Goose Bay Labrador, and proceeded on an H-21 helicopter from Goose Bay to Hopedale.
On my arrival, I was assigned to the 923rd AC&W. After training some two to three months, I found myself working night shifts from 4:30 PM until 8:30 AM the next day. We did this seven days a week. I had two other guys on the crew with me. Our NCO was T/Sgt. Harmon at first and then S/Sgt. Brown. There was another Sgt. later but I thankfully have forgotten his name.
We had around 120 GI's on the site. The USAF also employed about 40 to 50 civilians in a number of jobs. All of the buildings were connected with hall ways (also known as catwalks). These were OK from the point of view of moving from one building to another, in a warm and controlled climate - during the winter months - but I do not see how they offered any privacy to those in barracks. They were just a convenience during inclement weather.
There weren't many recreational facilities available to us. There were some weights in one of the radar towers and some of the guys played basketball in the motor pool, or baseball on the chopper pad when weather permitted. There was also a HAM station later and there was a library. We also fished a lot during the summer for Cod.
The airman were only allowed beer, which I believe was 5-10 cents a can and it did get to be a problem. There were no USO's but we did get movies. Sometimes we had the same movie for 2-3 weeks.
I spent most of my time off working in a radio station that I helped build in the area of the library. We build a modulator/transmitter/power supply on two bread pans. We had two Gates turn tables, an RCA audio board, and an SP-600 receiver. We used the SP-600 to pick up AFRS radio for rebroadcast. We transmitted I believe on 1425 Khz or 1.425 Mhz and had about 30-40 watts output into a 120 inch whip antenna. It wasn’t all that fancy, but it worked.
Food was different. There was a time we ran out of meat. All we had was the Cod fish we had caught in the summer. What we missed most was fresh fruit and veggies and fresh milk.
Mail in and out was rather bad at time because of the weather. I believe we went for 18 days at one time without anything in or out. At times the mail clerks at Goose would bundle each person's mail as I think they had one clerk assigned to 923rd and if mail wasn't moving he had little to do. We should have received mail twice a week.
We could only get out of Hopedale on Emergency leave while I was there. Winters were very cold and I recall the summer months to be very hot. The winters were so cold that only the crews that worked the outsites, Rx and Tx went out of doors.
Coming back I just reversed directions with the same types of planes. I left Hopedale in March of 1959 and proceeded to Schilling AFB, Kansas (This was previously known as Smokey Hill AFB)
I still have all the letters I sent my girl friend, now wife, while I was in Hopedale. I would like to find some of the radio guys that were there around my time. A/2c Robert Nash and A/1c Robert Herz