Blip Jockey Talk
Remote "Parish" Can Be Cold - But It's Not Dull For Priest
Along the periphery of the North American continent, small outposts are located where Air Force men constantly scan the skies with sophisticated radar sets, continually watchful for enemy aircraft, observing every single commercial flight, identifying, recording, logging flight plans. Every blip on the scope is accounted for.
These small Air Defense Command installations on the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts, maintained by 100 to 200 men each are too small to have their own doctors; their own chaplains; or their own legal counselors.
There is just one Catholic chaplain to serve the men assigned to the 37th Air Division's five isolated squadrons. He is Chaplain (Captain) Francis R. McMullen, stationed at Goose AB, Labrador. Officially assigned to the 4630th Support Squadron at Goose, his stay is only between trips, "to do my laundry and repack" for the next trip," as he puts it.
A modernday "Circuit Rider, his "parish" resembles a huge triangle, 715 miles north to south, 245 miles east to west and is more than 85,000 square miles in area; bigger than all of New England. It is wild, primitive country with only a few inhabitants in tiny villages along the coast. These people, mostly Eskimos and Indians, eke out an existence by fishing and trapping in much the same way their ancestors did 100 years ago. In the past 11 months of Father McMullen's tour, he has already traveled more than 15,000 miles to provide spiritual care for the men at these sites.
A typical week for Father McMullen starts like this. He is notified to report to the Goose terminal at 8 for a 9 a.m. takeoff. He checks his Mass Kit for the necessary equipmentchalice, vestments, everything but the altar itself. He will take along sufficient wine and altar breads for a five to six day stay, plus extra amounts in case of sub-Arctic weather conditions. Then he makes a quick check of the clothing needed at the radar site. The ''trip", in a small, single-engine Otter equipped with skis (in the summer with pontoons) or in a C-47, takes from an hour and a half to three hours flying time.
Most of the 37th's radar sites are situated on high hills over-looking the Atlantic Ocean. Some are located near villages, usually fishing communities. Saglek AS, however, is perched on a sheer cliff, 1,800 feet above the frozen Atlantic with the nearest native settlement more than 100 miles away. The tree lines are far to the south and the granite hills are covered with snow 10 months of the year.
On reaching a site, Father McMullen and other passengers are met by a truck or snowmobile. They are escorted to the site, a miniature city in itself. Each dome has its own power plant, heating system and many buildings joined by enclosed hallways. Enormous white plastic "bubbles" containing the radar equipment preside over the array of sheet-metal buildings and living quarters.
Confessions and Mass are available to the personnel each day at their most convenient hour-usually at the end of the daytime duty hours, 6 or 6:30 p.m. During the day and evening, Father McMullen makes the rounds of the various work sections, making himself available to anyone wishing to see him. The priest also makes a practice to meet all newcomers and make their acquaintance personally. He also obtains his home address and sends a letter to the parents or wife of the newly assigned man.
The trips to and from the sites are not without incident, Father McMullen notes. Last January, for instance, while returning from one of the sites, his plane was forced by a sudden snowstorm to land on a frozen lake. Father McMullen and the other passengers spent an afternoon and an entire night in the open, sub-zero weather. They chopped down trees for fire wood, melted snow to brew coffee and soup, and fried Spam on a shovel. They waited out the weather until it cleared the next morning and permitted a takeoff back to Goose. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Father McMullen received a direct commission in October, 1963.
-- This article is taken from an Air Force Times issue, probably in the 1962 time frame.