Lac St. Denis, QC

7 Jan 56

Station – Ski Club formed. Ski Tow in operation. Skis available free of charge.

St. Jerome – Hockey – Station vs. Army. Station 3 – Army 1.

Rec. Centre – Tournament night – table tennis, cribbage, bridge. Excellent turnout.

Inter-section hockey throughout the month. Badminton practice every Monday night and daily basketball practice for men and women.

St. Johns – The station hockey team lost out in a sudden death game against St. Hubert in the ADC Championship – score 7 to 2.

A fairly heavy schedule of basketball, volleyball and hockey was carried on throughout the month. Children’s hockey every Saturday morning and daily between 1630 and 1730 hours. Every second Wednesday set aside for games nights attracting many table tennis, cribbage, bridge and dart enthusiasts. A new "Rec. Centre Activity" pamphlet is being delivered weekly to personnel and dependents. The station library was moved to another section of the Rec. Centre making way for a weight lifting room. The leathercraft and wood working shop operates on a three evening a week schedule.

Ops – Exercise Granville. 12 tracks plotted for 11 flight plans. 11 intercepts attempted with 10 successful.

Ops – Exercise Wardance. Intercepts attempted on all but three targets. Results poor due to poor cross-telling.

Exercise Wardance. Again results very poor due to poor plotting.

S/L Tew in from Gimli for period of S/L Wilson’s leave.

Ops – A party of four CGE Techs under Mr. A Perkins arrived for overhaul of B Scans.

Ops – F/O JA Emery ADC/PRO and a party of newsmen visited the Ops building.

CE Section – Visited by the following:

A conference was held to discuss the undesirable features of the existing sewage treatment plant and the correction of these difficulties.

Rec. Centre – An all day Winter Sports Carnival was held. It started with a small party in the Rec. Hall for the children. The Ski tournament started at 1000 hours was considered the highlight of the sports activities. Carnival Dance that evening was very successful.

Tech Services – F/L’s Swanson and Hoffart of AFHQ arrived for preliminary arrangements for UHF antenna evaluation tests.

Lachine – Hockey match. Lachine 3, Lac St. Denis 1.

Ste. Agathe – Hockey match. Ste. Agathe 12, Lac St. Denis 6.

Tech Services – S/L Robinson of AFHQ CTels and Mr. Beale of USAF Rome Air Development Base visited for a one day conference with CTechSO, CEO, RadO and Mr. Hastings (Canadian Marconi Tech Rep) on the Back-up Tower Radome tests. CTels project W444.

Rec. Centre – Volleyball tournament. Officers lost to Corporals three out of five.

Rec. Centre – St. Patrick’s Day Dance.

Ops – Exercise Crewcut. Difficulty in sorting fighters from targets due to number of fighters used in a small area. 26 intercepts attempted, 7 successful, 14 scrambles with 13 fighters airborne. 16 B-47 tracks plotted.

Ste. Agathe – Hockey match. Lac St. Denis 4 – Lachine 2.

Rec. Centre – Sleight Ride – 40 children for Morin Heights.

Ops – Exercise Bigwind. Tracks of 6 aircraft carried. 4 intercepts attempted, 2 complete, 1 abort. All micro-wave lines unserviceable for six minutes during exercise.

Ops – Cocked Pistol at 0341 hours. 3 controllers and 25 FtrCops were on duty at the time. Six extra controllers and six FtrCops arrived at 0415. Cocked Pistol terminated at 0735. 7 tracks of B-47’s carried, 6 intercepts attempted, 5 successful. After exercise 2 CF-100’s from 3 Sector came in from the North and were intercepted successfully by 2 aircraft under Crystal’s control.

Some very fine photographic equipment was received for the newly activated Photo Section. F/L Smith, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Hipper visited to study capabilities of Air Defence System. Drawings and Specifications for the new Barrack Block, Admin Bldg., ME extension and Fire Hall were received by the CE Section. The month closed with a visit from W/C Trischuck, SOCE ADCHQ.

Rec. centre – Tournament tonight.

Ops – Exercise Darwin. Due to the fact that the signal return was only obtained in the area approximately 10 miles east of Scooter to 40 miles west of Parent, considerable difficulty was encountered by intercept Controllers in positioning the fighters for Harlequin approach. Good final intercepts were obtained and all tracks intercepted. Two fighters returned to base with sour weapons.

Ops – Exercise Darwin. One extra Controller called in. 12 intercepts, 1 missed.

Tech Services – S/L E McArthur of ADCHQ/STelSO branch visited and familiarized with the Communications and radar equipment held by this unit.

Ops – F/O Simond and two photographers arrived for a three day visit to photograph in color, telephone, radar and FCO tradesmen at work.

Ops – Exercise Logbook. Scrambled after suspicious track. Aircraft gave evasive action most of the time but two ID passes completed. Target too close to Montreal for firing passes.

Exercise Darwin. 11 tracks intercepted out of 15 passing through area. Impossible to hit all tracks as some passed too far north of station.

Ops – Cross telling from Mudpie good and Crystal’s plotting very good. B-47’s practiced evasive action causing several missed intercepts. Exercise Sea Devil and Handcuff.

Ops – Exercise Handcuff. Two extra controllers (Harlequin) called in. Difficulty experienced due to evasive action of targets. Agreed that more displacement was required than was available for this type of exercise.

Ops – Exercise Anchor. Difficulty again experienced due to restricted area of operations. Trigger checks from all fighters. Anchor 33, 44 and 45 controlled by Crystal on VHF. No contact with other B-47’s.

Ops – Exercise Handcuff. 19 intercepts attempted, 11 successful, 4 missed due to personnel error. Very poor EW from Mudpie on first wave, but following satisfactory.

Tech Services – S/L TJB Robinson AFHQ/CTels; F/O Wilson AFHQ/DCED; Mr. Boys USAF Rome Development Base; Mr. Coldwell Sheldon Engineering; S/L Powell, WO1 Harkin and Sgt. Prince of ADCHQ/SOCE visited and discussed maintenance of pressurizing systems.

Rec. Centre – A demonstration of muscular control was given by Adrien Gagnon. High-light of the show was the demonstration of weight lifting by Gerry Gratton, former Olympic champion.

Tech Services – Mr. R Western and Mr. P Wharton of Collins Radio Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, installed UHF filters and antenna multicouplers for UHF tests scheduled for May.

Tech Services – S/L JR Austin, F/O PJH Sheasby, and WO2 JO Leach of RCAF Station Clinton arrived to discuss Communications and Radar Tech training.

Ops – Exercise Paydirt. Cocked Pistol at 1116Z. 8 controllers present at 1147Z. Released at 1555Z. Surveillance overfly took place north of Scooter area. At times the picture was confused as Scooter indicated that they were getting only occasional paints and also having trouble with range markers and aircraft passing through PE area. Largo had scramble prerogative. Scooter controlled a total of 5 aircraft. Crystal handled handover and recovery.

Rec. Centre – Floor hockey – Lac St. Denis 12 – Rosemount Boy’s Club 11.

Ops – Exercise Paydirt. Scooter controlled all aircraft but the last one. Target proceeded on a westerly course and appeared that it would be out of operational range. BP 27 turned over to Scooter. Target turned SW and BP 29 under Crystal control made successful intercept.

Tech Services – Party of two NCO’s arrived from 6RD to install UHF antennae and receivers for antennae tests.

Ops – Sector Multiple Control Exercise. 1 successful, 3 unsuccessful.

Rec. Centre – Floor hockey. Lac St. Denis 14, Rosemount Boy’s Club 15.

Tech Services – Mr. DE Gaines of Collins Radio Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; F/L Swanson of ANCHQ and F/L MJ Hoffart of AFHQ CTelS arrived to conduct UHF trials.

Tech Services – UHF Trials conducted – successful.

Tech Services – S/L Fumerton, Movements Control Officer and 1 NCO from 1SD arrived to discuss Supply problems.

Ops – Sector Multiple Control Exercise. The Surveillance picture good. Fighters scrambled from Ottawa and St. Hubert. 5 Controllers, Fighter Marshaller and Duty Controller on duty. 8 fighters under control. 4 targets. Results – 2 MA’s, 3 MI’s due to Controller error, 3 MI’s due to AEF.

Tech Services – S/L Battison, ADC SOTel; Mr. B Pennell, Mr. C Cavelle and Mr. A Fields of Bell Telephone arrived to discuss the installation of new tele-scramble facilities.

Rec. Centre – Presentation of Sports Trophies followed by Dance.

Lachine – Softball – Women’s Station Team 9 – Lachine 12.

Tech Services – WO2 Street ADCHQ Photo, WO1 Smith, CEPE Rockcliffe with a party of NCOs arrived and commenced installation of new PPI recording camera.

Tech Services – F/L Loucks of CEPE Photo arrived to observe the tryout of PPI recording camera.

Signed by:

(JD Mitchner) W/C
CO, RCAF Station Lac St. Denis, Que.