Memories of Mont Apica
We were in Foymount until November 1, 1961 then transferred to Mont Apica, Quebec. This was another radar station in the Laurentides Park about 100 miles north of Quebec City. Talk about snow, well I thought we used to get a lot on the prairies but it was a lark to what we got in Mont Apica. Here we were about 60 miles from the nearest town and if I recall Shirley didn't come with me immediately due to lack of housing. When she did come we sub-let another serviceman's PMQ (permanent married quarters) for a while, and lived in Chicoutimi for a while before we were able to get a PMQ of our own.
The whole station was self-contained so that you didn't have to leave the location for food or anything. The winters were so bad and the fact that there was no place to go most everyone put their cars up on blocks for the winter. We had a Ford Falcon station wagon at this time and I didn't put it up on blocks but kept the battery in the house. The reason for this was that we were now expecting our second child. There was no hospital on the base and it was about 60 miles to Arvida where we had to go. I recall the trip, January 16th and I think about minus 35 degrees F. When Shirley told me it was time to go I put the warm battery into the car and low and behold it started. I got all the snow cleaned off and we were off into the wilderness to get to the hospital. The car, having sat for such long period in the cold, the tires were frozen and not exactly round. Everything was stiff so the ride was not what you would like for a person having labour pains. Anyway we did make it in time and on that very cold Quebec morning Janice Diane came into this world.
My tour at Mont Apica was about the same as any of the other radar stations I had been on but things started to change in my trade. About this time computers started to come into being. Now a computer in those days was not what you think of these days. The first one we had in Mont Apica filled a room about 30 feet by 40 feet. There were rows and rows of electrical cabinets with drawers that all pulled out. There were hundreds of flashing lights of all colours and the hum of the fans to keep it all cool made the room quite noisy. There were no transistors in this machine and it was full of vacuum tubes like in the old radios.
The computer made a large part of my job as an Fighter Control Operator redundant. A lot of the information taken in from the radar and passed on to Air Defense Headquarters was now done by this room full of flashing lights. As a consequence our trade was to be reduced in size tremendously. There was a choice, a person could get out of the service or remuster (change trades). I had enough seniority to stay in the trade but since there would probably never be a chance for promotion or advancement I decided that I would remuster. There were not too many trades available to get into either. Out of what was available I decided to become an Air Force Policeman.
One memorable event, while stationed at Mont Apica, was the "shotgun incident". I did quite a bit of fishing and also did some duck hunting. On this occasion, the hunting trip was to be combined with a Search and Rescue exercise. This way we got all our provisions from the base as well as tents, sleeping bags, etc. Anyway, about 10 of us went to Lake St. John for the duck hunting. This is a real large lake with small bayous on the north end. The ducks fed all day on fields near there and at night returned to these small areas to roost for the night. We positioned ourselves around one of these pond areas and waited for the ducks to start coming back. It wasn't long before they started to come in. The fellow directly across from me took a bead on a duck and followed it until his aim was directly at me. At that point he felt the aim was right so he pulled the trigger. I was about 40 yards away but the force knocked me over backwards. I had fairly heavy clothes on and some of the pellets made their way through and were there between the clothes and my skin. The thing that really scared me was the ones in my face. I think altogether there were about six in my face, one of which was in the eye socket and two more within an inch of my eyes. Someone was watching over me that day for sure. As soon as this happened I was taken by boat back to where the camp was and driven to a doctor. He removed what he could find and I was then taken back to the base. The next day my eye felt sore so I went to the doctor on the base. This was when it was discovered there was still one in the eye socket and some more in my face. He removed all except one in my cheek that kept moving as he probed. He left that one and the only reason I knew it was still there was once at a later date a dentist, when taking x-rays, thought he had found a tooth filling in my cheek.
I had a lot of dreams during the next year or so but it hasn't bothered me since. I did sell all the firearms I ever owned and haven't hunted anything since.