Saglek, Labrador

1962 - Memories of Saglek - Rex Harris

We used Eastern Provincial Airways (EPA) C-46-type aircraft to get from Goose Bay to Saglek and return. There were two or three flights a week, weather permitting. On occasion, we would go ten days to two weeks between flights. As I recall, we never had a USAF aircraft arrive while I was there, but I am told C-130's did come and go on other occasions. The runway was 4,780 feet with short overruns. One of the permanent party Canadian civilians told me of an occasion when the Air Force brought a bulldozer to the site by aircraft (likely a C-130 at a minimum). According to the story, the pilot used all of the runway plus some of the overrun. The air coming in on final over the bay is very rough. Because of this phenomena, my initial arrival at Saglek was more than routine. When we hit an air pocket just at the water and land transition point, my body slid up through my bulky USAF overcoat. My head hit the overhead, opened a sizable cut and the blood flowed freely. After ministrations from the site medic, I recovered in a day or two.

On another occasion, an Eskimo accidentally shot another Eskimo one night and the Air Force sent in an aircraft of some type (can't remember) but likely an SA-16 from Goose Bay to take the wounded Eskimo out during the early morning hours. Lower camp support personnel scurried around to find smudge pots for runway lighting. That was a potentially tricky situation. The Eskimo survived. We traveled from lower camp to upper camp via four-wheeled drive vehicles and snowcats. The upper camp was located at approximately 1,800 feet above sea-level.

We were re-supplied in June by sea. The Sir John Crosbie was the re-supply vessel during my tour at Saglek. The annual re-supply was a hectic four or five day period, with all hands participating. We had about a hundred and ten or so USAF personnel assigned to the site, with about 30 civilians from various Canadian locations. In addition to the Site Commander, we had an Operations Officer, a number of Weapons Directors, a Communications-Electronics Officer, Radar Officer, Communications Officer, Civil Engineering Officer, Supply Officer and a Lower Camp Officer (a civil engineering type). We had long-term Canadian civilians in key civil engineering support positions. Canadian Marconi provided expatriate technicians to support the troposcatter communications systems. This mix of personnel created some management challenges, particularly during Canadian elections and at closing times for the Officer and NCO Club bars. I don't know exactly when the site went in, but it was there in 1954 according to information available to me. I lost track of the activities at Saglek AS after leaving in November 1963.

The Air Force switched over to unattended radar in the 80s, I think. I had an FPS-20A radar during my tour. As a matter of fact, I nearly blew my career over three faulty high voltage plate transformers for the FPS-20A. In addition to the initial failure, I received two defective units from the depot at Harmon. This coincidence was hard to prove to the site commander and the management folks at Goose Air Defense Sector. Upon receiving a third replacement unit from the States, I was more than somewhat relieved when the radar fired up as soon as we finished hooking up the transformer.

I was told that a height finder radar blew off the cliff sometime before I got there. I never saw any inventory records on the lost radar, but I am sure it was there at one time. The site was totally manual and reported to Melville as I recall. I can't remember the call sign. Strange how things like that escape one's memory so quickly. Maybe another Sagleker can recall.

Although there was an R&R leave for all personnel at the halfway point in their tour, time hung heavily at the site. As a result, many of the troops went through copious quantities of adult beverages during their off-duty time, providing more than a few opportunities for the club officer to excel in his assignment. There were many personal phone calls to and from the States and Canadian locations. The lack of mail was one of the largest morale problems. The combination of limited flights to the site and a gradual tapering off of correspondence as the year-long tour wore on led to the mail problem. Periodic visits by a "circuit flying" chaplain helped somewhat, but the effects were generally short-lived. There were some dicey inter-personal relations, mainly political in nature, between some of the Canadians. There were two site commanders--as different as day and night-- during my tour.

When the weather broke in the late spring, there was a rush for the lower camp to do some touring of the rocky terrain. It was amazing to see some small flowers and a number of types of birds and foxes suddenly appear. Huge ravens were common at the upper and lower camps.

An obligatory stop at the lower camp was that of observing the remnants of a B-26 that crashed on December 10, 1942, while trying to land after running out of fuel during a flight from Greenland to Goose Bay. That event led to a 35-year effort on my part to learn the details of the crash. Prior to my departure from Saglek, I initiated an effort to build a cairn commemorating the crew. I wrote the text for a bronze plaque which is now on the cairn (View photo of the cairn) erected at a large curve in the road from the lower to upper camps, near the few remnants of the B-26. The full story of the crash and links to other accounts of the event can be found on my Web page at:

http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/3310

Life at the site was very much like living in an underground rabbit warren. From October until April, there was very little outside activity other than the logistics associated with necessary site maintenance and meeting the incoming EPA flights. Whiteouts were common throughout this period. Life under these circumstances tested the mettle of even the most easy-going personnel. Those with lower thresholds of tolerance were subject to sudden and sometimes threatening outbursts. The Officers and NCO clubs, designed to provide recreational outlets, often fueled tense situations. At least one and, in a good year, as many as two, USO tour groups visited each site. These groups provided great entertainment, but the presence of extremely good-looking women more often than not exacerbated an already tense environment. During my tour, one group was snowed in at the site for a couple of days. The additional time on site did little to ease the management challenges facing the commander and his staff during these visits. One interesting feature of the Officer's Club was that a large plate glass window which overlooked the troposcatter farm located on an adjacent hill vibrated continuously as a result of the movement of the cliff on which the site is located. That provided newcomers with a few moments of concern.

We didn't have a local village but the Eskimo fishermen and their families spent a lot of time at the lower camp during the fishing season. These folks provided some interesting challenges for the lower camp supervisor, a USAF First Lieutenant.

My assignment at Saglek AS was at once the best and the worst of all my assignments during my Air Force career. Only my six months in Officer Candidate School was more demanding from a psychological standpoint. No other assignment ever tested my capabilities to function as an officer more than Saglek. I do not believe that I missed a single one of the opportunities to excel that are so often bandied about when discussing how bad things can get. Life at Saglek had to be experienced; there is no way to ever just "discuss" it. No one who ever served at Saglek will ever be the same. Hopefully, the majority of us are better people for having served at that outpost. There is no doubt in my mind that I am.

-- Rex Harris - Major, USAF(Retired) - Radar/Communications Electronics Officer, 1962-1963. Rex spent a year in Saglek between November 1962 and November 1963. He presently resides in Camden, South Carolina. (February 1998)