I arrived at the 921st AC&W Squadron, located at St. Anthony, Newfoundland, in August 1961.
We flew from RCAF Station Torbay to Harmon AFB in a USAF C-47. From Harmon AFB we flew by Eastern Provincial Airways in an Otter fitted with pontoons to St. Anthony.
I had been assigned to this unit from the 642nd AC&W Squadron, located at Red Cliff, Newfoundland, when the 642nd was closed. I did not volunteer for assignment to St. Anthony – but I did not have sufficient time completed in my tour to be rotated to the ZI – hence the re-assignment to St. Anthony. I arrived at St. Anthony as an Airman Third Class but I was eventually promoted to Airman Second Class on 1 October 1961. There were about 125 USAF personnel on strength at St. Anthony. There were also a number of civilians employed by the squadron, but I do not recall how many were on the payroll.
As a Radar Operator, I was employed in the 921st AC&W Squadron operations section. We worked 6 and 3 at this location. Three days, 3 swings and then 3 days off – followed by – 3 days, 3 midnight’s and then 3 days off. This was done by splitting each crew into two squads for the all-night (combined swing & midnight) shifts. Both squads would work the day shifts together, but would split to take the nights.
We had the AN/FPS-20 search radar equipment at this location, and as was the case at Red Cliff, we were dependent on the height finder that was located at the RCAF manned 226th AC&W Squadron located at Gander. The set at St. Anthony was outstanding, and invariably picked up inbound traffic before Gander did.
As was the case at Red Cliff, we tracked only traffic that was inbound (westbound) in the CADIZ, except for special (yellow) traffic. Most normal traffic was scheduled passenger airline flights from Europe to USA. They all checked with Gander on the way in and it was normal to get 5 or 6 of these per hour. Yellow traffic at St. Anthony was usually aerial refueling (KC-97’s). Sometimes we had SAC B-52’s on airborne alert flying north and southbound between Thule and Arkansas. Every few weeks we’d get an unknown, and it would usually turn out to be a SAC flight of B-47’s, inbound from Europe that was absurdly off course. We often ran practice intercepts using F-102’s from Harmon. We had full-size plotting boards but they were only used during training missions.
At Harmon, the crew was on exactly the same schedule as we were at St. Anthony, so we always worked opposite the same few guys there. We became fast friends with them even though we never saw them. On my way back to the States, I stopped up there and met them. None looked like he sounded.
For recreation – well, there was a pool table in the combined laundry/latrine. We had an airmen’s club, but they served only beer. We were not permitted any hard liquor of any kind. Regular poker and acey-deucey games were held in the airmen’s club. There was a theater on site, showing movies that were only a few months old. Each movie ran for a week.
The following are excerpts from a letter I wrote to my brother from St. Anthony on 4 November 61. This pretty well sums up my life at that time.
John – Thanks for the letter. I wish I had something to write. Nothing much happens here. The old man makes sure that we don’t make anything to do ourselves. I think he’d have a heart attack if anything happened to raise morale a little. This place is as chickenshit as Keesler, and it’s 5,000 miles from the nearest tap room. "Do we have to pull details?" you ask. We have bay orderly every 9 days, latrine orderly every 9 days, guard duty about once a month, "ground improvement" every Friday if you worked the swing shift the night before, and each airman gets one week of JOD. Ground improvement is known to everybody but the CO as Rock-a-Rama. It consists of relocating rocks, hauling sheep shit up the hill, and planting flowers and trees in it. JOD is janitor of the day. This is sweeping, mopping, and buffing about 3 miles of hallway. You catch KP on the JOD weekend. Also, we are eligible for KP whenever the civilians take their 30 per year. They just started midnight KP. This I should catch every 18 days. I’ve been spending my time shooting 9-ball, playing poker, and drinking whenever we can get it. The airmen aren’t allowed hard liquor so it’s got to be smuggled. Many European ships put into the harbor and they’re always loaded with brandy and cognac, which they’re willing to trade or sell. We’ve had some snow in the past few weeks but it’s not bad yet. They gave me the full outfit – arctic pants, parka, etc. It weighs more than I do. Your brother, Nanook
St. Anthony was the only place where I have ever seen winds over 80 mph and fog at the same time. We would also get dense fogs that would leave behind thick coatings of glare ice on everything. The elevated buildings at St. Anthony did a good job of preventing the snow from drifting against the walls.
We were totally dependent on that little DeHaviland Otter for all fresh foods, so if it did not fly, we ate canned food. I remember periods two weeks long, of nothing but powdered eggs, canned bacon, canned ham, and canned sweet potatoes. The kitchen at St. Anthony was left open all the time, so if one discreetly sneaked in and made a sandwich at 3 am, nobody noticed.
St. Anthony was a completely dry town. No liquor could be legally purchased there.
During my winter at St. Anthony a USO show featuring Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, and Jerry Cologna was performing at Goose Bay. Sitting on scope in the evening, I was discussing with my crew chief my dismay that we could not attend the show. In a flash of brilliance or foolishness I rang our switchboard and asked to be connected to Goose Bay. When the Goose operator answered, I bellowed in my best command voice, "This is General Safarcas, I’d like to speak to Miss Mansfield, please." To my astonishment, she put me through to the quarters where the entertainers were staying.
Bob Hope answered the phone. I was struck dumb, so my crew chief took over and chatted with Mr. Hope for a few minutes. Then Mr. Hope said that Jayne Mansfield had just arrived and passed the phone to her. I regained my composure and began to talk and flirt with her. By this time the interconnected ring-talk lines all over Newfoundland were patching in. After about 5 minutes of unsuccessfully beseeching her to fly to St. Anthony, she said she had to go and said goodbye. About a hundred airmen from all over Newfoundland all said, "Goodbye!" in unison. This story can be verified by an entry in the ops log stating that Airman Devine succeeded in establishing contact with Jayne Mansfield.
I would not describe the building interconnections at St. Anthony as catwalks. They were wide hallways built exactly like the buildings they joined. The longer ones had windows. There were heavy self-closing fire doors in the halls between all the buildings. Going from my barracks bay to the latrine meant pushing through two sets of fire doors. Getting to the chow hall meant going thorough six.
Living there, one had the impression that it was one building with many rooms, rather than a series of buildings. The barracks bays had one-man rooms, so there was plenty of privacy.
The radio shack at St. Anthony was a separate building. It was at least a quarter mile from the main structure.
Mail at St. Anthony was a different story than what I had been accustomed to at Red Cliff. Mail, like fresh food, was dependent on the bush pilot. Sometimes we’d go 20 days with no mail. Whenever "Easy Yoke Oboe", our Otter, got airborne at Harmon, the news would spread like wildfire. In Ops, we’d usually pick him up inbound about 40 miles out. No other track was watched so closely as "EYO".
St. Anthony was frequently referred to as St. Agony by the airmen.
I eventually departed St. Anthony in April 1962 for the 679th AC&W Squadron located at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida. We departed from a frozen lake at St. Anthony on the same Otter fitted with skis and wheels, landing on the runway at Harmon AFB. We flew from Harmon AFB to McGuire AFB, NJ on a MATS C-54.