Senneterre, Quebec

On graduation from the Basic Training course at Clinton Ontario, I was transferred to RCAF Station Senneterre, Quebec. The normal method of travel was by train but if you happened to own a car you would be paid so much a mile to drive there. I didn't have a car so I was issued the train tickets to get me to Senneterre. Senneterre, it turned out, was in northern Quebec near the Ontario border. I think Kirkland Lake, Ontario and Val d'Or Quebec were the nearest recognizable town names.

I don't recall the route I had to take to get to Senneterre but the last part I recall was with The Ontario Northland Railway. This would, of course, in those days be a steam locomotive pulling a coal tender, a couple of freight cars, one baggage car and one passenger car. There may also have been a few cars loaded with timber and maybe one or two carrying ore or the like. The car I remember was the passenger car. The seats were made of plywood and upholstered, probably 50 years prior and had little or no padding under the leatherette upholstery. There was a wood burning stove at one end of the car so that around it would be nice and warm but the further away you got the colder it got.

There was no meal car so food consisted of sandwiches that were sold by people that came aboard at the stops. These usually were Ham, Cheese, Ham and Cheese or Cheese and Ham. You could also get a bottle of soft drink and a lot of the people on board brought their own bottle (cheap wine, whiskey etc.). The train would sometimes stop in the middle of the forest to let hunters off and also stop to pick up hunters. They sometimes had a deer carcass with them that would be put in the baggage car and taken out when the hunters got off again.

We seemed to have traveled for literally days and days. Finally on a stop which seemed to be in the middle of the woods the conductor announced that we were in Senneterre. I was a bit skeptical about getting off but did. As I got off I could see that there was a Railroad Station there, that is a Dark Red Log Building along side the track that had a sign that said Senneterre, PQ. I felt a little better when I saw that my luggage was being taken off as well so I figured I was at the right place, even if no one else got off. My arrival date at Senneterre was April 15, 1955.

The train pulled away in a cloud of steam and cinders and I was left standing alone on the platform with my luggage, one suitcase and one duffel bag. Again I wondered to myself, "what have you gotten yourself into?" Well very shortly an Air Force Station Wagon drove up and out got an Airwoman. I don't recall her name now but after determining I was the one she was supposed to pick up we got into the vehicle for the drive to the base. She asked me what my name was and I said Elmer. There was a pause and she said "we'll call you Al". When we arrived at the base I was introduced as Al and from that day onwards I have been called Al (some years later Mom even started to use it).

RCAF Station Senneterre was about the same as all the radar stations that I came to know. The Domestic part of the station consisted of a mess hall building divided into three parts - Officers, Sergeants and Airmen. Each section had a mess hall and a canteen (club, beer hall or whatever you would like to call it). Then there were barracks for Airmen, Airwomen, Sergeants and Officers, MIR (Medical Inspection Room, that had one or two hospital rooms), a recreation centre, an Administration Building, Supply Building, PMQ's (Private Married Quarters) and the Guard House. Then there was the Operations site. That was the part of the station that housed the radar equipment. This was always high on a hill so there was no interference in the line of sight for the radar. It was a steep winding road to the top of the hill and there stood three buildings each with a large radome on the top. They were always in a row and the centre radome was always larger and higher than the ones on each side. The centre radome contained the search radar and the side radomes contained height finder radars. The centre building is where all the action took place. It housed all the radar rooms, plotting rooms, operational Administration, etc. The building was five stories high, and the radar antennae was on the roof inside the radome. There was one small window on the main floor of the building so the guard at the door could see who was coming in and the rest of the building was lighted only by electricity. The one window was about 10 inches thick and bullet proof, I'm told.

Quite often we worked twelve hour shifts, so when we went to work at 7 p.m. in the winter it was dark, when you got off at 7 am it was still dark, you went to bed and when you got up about 5 p.m. it was dark again. Even if you worked day shift you hardly saw the daylight because of the building with no windows.

Senneterre, in the winter, was beautiful if you like cold and snow. I did, so I enjoyed myself there. The snow got very deep, and many plowed areas were 10 and 12 feet high. If you went into the bush at all you needed skis or snow shoes. There were a few ski trails and a few hills that you could ski on but not any ski tows. Some of the people used snow shoes as well to get along but I never did master them.

The summers were short but very nice. There was good moose hunting in the area but I never indulged. I did do a bit of fishing for trout in the area but wasn't real successful at it. The mosquitoes and black flies were horrendous in the area. The town of Senneterre was real small and French was the predominant language. Although we had a club on the base, we did frequent the local hotels quite a bit. If I recall correctly there always seemed to be live music which made them more interesting than the club on the base. There were Air Force bus runs at regular times into town, that is up to a certain time of night, so you had to make sure you caught the last bus or spring for a taxi to get back to base.

Life on an operational base was altogether different than what I had been used to at the training bases that I had been on. Although discipline was still practiced, you could really relax and live normally when you were on your own time. Since I was in a radar trade, I worked shift work for many years.

The radar equipment, as you can imagine, ran 24 hours a day and had to be manned. I don't think I ever really got used to working the midnight shift (grave yard shift it was called). No matter how much sleep I got before going to work, I always had to fight to stay awake between 4 and 6 in the morning. Different stations had different schedules that we had to work. Sometimes we had 12 hour shifts, sometimes 8 hour shifts, sometimes 2 days off at a time and some times more. There was no end to the combinations they could come up with and I think they tried to see how many different ones they could pile on us. Later in my career I did work a fair amount of straight day shifts but I guess out of 21 years I probably worked 15 years of shift work.

I guess Senneterre was the first base that I had an Air Force girl friend. I had my share over the years but won't make an attempt to name any. I also had one in Saskatchewan when I joined up, and we did write for a while but at that age, not being able to see one another, it didn't last too long. The Fighter Control Operator trade was about 50% Airwomen so there were plenty to choose from. Most radar stations at this time would be about 50% women. I guess we did the same things as civilian couples did, movies, dancing and partying. Drinking was quite a part of our lives. I don't mean that military personnel were all drunks but most seemed to drink quite a lot. At that time the age that you could legally drink was 21 but in the service you could drink in the base clubs if you were 18 or above. There were always those that tended to drink too much but on the whole it wasn't abused to a great degree.

Senneterre was the station where I really became proficient at my trade and when I left there for any other radar station I could handle any part of the job.

My stay at Senneterre was quite short. They tended to move people around a lot, especially if you were single. I don't know why they moved us so much but they sure did. Some of the stations were quite a bit more isolated than others so I suppose it helped you from getting cabin fever. I always liked the northern bases but I think a lot of people would have preferred bases closer to larger towns and cities. I think I had my first leave (holiday) of any length while I was in Senneterre. My parents were in BC now so I had a long trip to see them. I hitch hiked out to BC and think I took the train back. We were allowed 30 days leave a year plus if you were single you were allowed traveling time to get to and from your home. That first leave I think was about 45 days. I tell you I was real proud to show myself off to friends and family in uniform. Now that I think of it, there wasn't that much to be proud of but I sure was. I made it a point to wear my uniform where ever I could while I was on leave.

When I returned to Senneterre, after that leave, I found that I had been transferred to Foymount, Ontario. This was another radar station but not so far north and I arrived at Foymount on November 20, 1955.