St. Anthony, NF

The General Military Training requirements established for the period were qualitatively completed. However, the overall percentage of training accomplished and reported on the quarterly NEAC T-1 report did not reflect the required percentage (50%) of completed training. The report is based of the squadron’s effective manning as it exists at the end of the reporting period. In most instances this figure will be somewhat lower or higher than the average mean strength for the period. The situation existing during this reporting period was that the end of quarter squadron manning was higher than average mean strength.

Several requests for GMT films from the NEAC film library were not fulfilled. The large demand for the limited number of current applicable training films was considered to be the cause for not receiving the films requested.

Marksmanship training was not accomplished during the quarter because of existing winter weather conditions. This training has been scheduled for the forthcoming summer months.

Operation of the Radar Maintenance Section during the first half of January was quite normal and uneventful. However, on 16 January the temperature rose to approximately 32 degrees and freezing rains began to cause severe icing of outside facilities. Although no difficulty was experienced in keeping the radomes free of ice, other equipment was severely affected. The heat tapes that had been installed on the anemometers proved to be inadequate. The anemometers were deiced manually every three to four hours during periods of daylight, but high winds and low visibility made such attempts impractical during hours of darkness. Consequently the anemometers for towers two and three were lost completely. As an interim measure, an old anemometer was installed for tower two and the output paralleled to tower three. Icing conditions lasted for approximately 72 hours. New anemometers have been requisitioned but as yet have not been received. The fact that anemometers could not be deiced properly has caused a UR to be submitted by this section.

Mr. A Miller, Canadian Marconi Company, returned from his leave on 2 February. Mr. George Hemming, also of Canadian Marconi Company, had assumed Mr. Millers duties during his absence. Mr. Hemming departed for Pepperrell Air Force Base on 27 January.

The arrival of a complete set of spare parts for the RW-106 pressurizing systems on 1 February was of considerable help to this section. The spares were among the freight which arrived on the USAF-Marconi Depot Team ship.

Two airmen were received during the quarter. Both are recent graduates of the Radar Repairmen school at Keesler Field. Section strength at the end of the quarter is as follows: 1 Officer, 1 M/Sgt., 2 A/1C, 8 A/2C and 1 A/3C.

Mr. Lawrence Friel, Philco Technical Representative departed for the ZI on 17 March. Mr. Friel’s departure leave this organization without the services of a Contractor Technician.

The long expected break in HF radio silence occurred on 15 January with the activation of HF net 53. The net was called up because of a scheduled shut down of primary equipment for maintenance purposes. Back-up voice Communications were satisfactorily maintained for approximately eight hours until primary facilities were returned to operation.

On 16 January "Old Man Winter" unleashed his worst blow of the year, to date. Freezing rain and wind ripped at outside plant facilities for approximately 72 hours, causing extensive damage to all communications antenna systems. All HF antennas were downed and all UHF receiving antennas were lost. Other antennas were damaged slightly and required minor repairs. In the HF system, two 60 foot poles (both center poles in the doublet, dual diversity arrangement) were lost completely. Rehabilitation of the antenna systems was accomplished mutually by three members of the 1^st Communications Construction Flight who were on TDY to this station and a two man rigging team from the Marconi Depot. The Marconi team arrived on 1 February.

The greatest single loss during the January storm was that of the 300 foot tower supporting the low frequency vertical radiator. The tower collapsed for the second time within the period of a year. Cause of the collapse was heavy ice loading and moderate winds.

Personnel-wise the picture within the section has improved but slightly during the quarter. The wire maintenance section is now over-manned, while radio maintenance, the communication center, and radio operations remain slightly undermanned. Personnel arrivals and departures for the quarter area as follows:

This period has been one of stable personnel manning in all sections except Food Service, Supply and Orderly Room. The Orderly Room is experiencing a shortage of one authorized Classification Specialist thereby necessitating the use of some personnel to perform duties outside of their AFSC. This situation is not considered critical at this stage providing replacements arrive as scheduled. The Supply Section lost two five level airmen during this period without receiving replacements. Section manning is at 71% however, effective manning is considerably lower at about 50%. Replacements are scheduled to arrive in April and end May. The Food Service Section continues to have the most critical manning problem. T/Sgt. Machen, the Mess Supervisor, rotated in March and one of our senior level Cooks was reassigned to the 923^rd AC&W Squadron in February. This has left the Squadron with three Cooks and a Cook’s Helper assigned, as against UMD authorization for eight positions including one Baker. As a stop-gap measure, two volunteers from the Operations Section have been filling in on a temporary basis as Cook Helpers. Necessary replacements are scheduled for April, May and June.

The Inspector General, Lt. Col. Richard H Cole, and a team of one Officer and four Airmen arrived at the site for their annual visit on 8 March. The inspection was thorough (as attested to by the fifty five pages of the report) without being picayune. The inspection lasted four days. Each evening the Officers and selected NCO’s were given a critique of the day’s accomplishments. A complete critique was given at the end of the inspection. The ten working days suspense provided an inordinately busy period for all sections. The net result was a forty four page answer to the report showing completed correction of most discrepancies, and plans to prevent recurrence.

The Unit Manning Document has undergone close scrutiny during this period and a number of suggested changes have been forwarded to HQ 64^th Air Division. Our purpose was two fold. First we wanted to realign the UMD authorization so as to reflect actual position manning based on the equipment used and job to be accomplished. Secondly, we attempted to cut our manning to a safe minimum so as to release military positions in order to hire civilian janitors, kitchen help, and site guards. This would result in a much greater degree of efficiency in all areas.

The following statistics depict medical activity at this organization.

A total of 8 out-patients and 11 dental patients were given limited treatment at the International Grenfell Association Hospital in St. Anthony during this quarter. Men of this organization donated a total of 7 pints of blood to the IGA Hospital during the same period.

The Medical Technician assigned gave limited treatment to 153 military personnel and 18 civilian personnel during the period. On 11 March a military dentist from Goose Air Base arrived at this station. During his stay the dentist treated a total of 86 patients. A breakdown of treatments given follows: Cleaning, 73; Filling, 163; Extraction, 64.

During January the squadron library was moved to the large room adjoining the Airmen’s day room. It’s previous location, the Information Services Office, did not provide the space required for proper display of books. A new magazine rack and a newspaper rack have been constructed by the Installations Section for use in the reading room.

In February, S/Sgt. O’Neal, who had been working temporarily with the operations section, returned to his normal duties in Personnel Services.

One problem area in this section was the lack of lamps for the movie projectors. Lamps had been requisitioned, but the usual slowness in obtaining supplies caused the theatre to run completely out of lamps. Command assistance was requested and provided results in obtaining lamps.

Lt. Jimmy L Tallant replaced Lt. Frank S Stofan as Information and Education Officer during the latter part of March. Lt. Stofan is scheduled for rotation early in April.

On 27 January, Captain William E Olivieri, the unit supply officer departed for Goose. While at Goose, Captain Olivieri was bonded as a Class "C" Agent and received a cash fund for emergency local purchases. Also during his stay at Goose he was instrumental in following through on a few high priority items. It is estimated that this action caused shipping of the items a month earlier than normally would have been the case.

The workload in the supply section has greatly increases since A/1C Barnett and A/2C Irving rotated to the ZI on approximately 1 March. A greater handicap is anticipated when S/Sgt. Benko leaves within 10 days. In order to relieve this, A/2C Lassiter has been moved to supply from the orderly room. At present he is being instructed in supply administration procedures prior to the latter’s rotation. One airman is expected from the ZI sometime during the latter part of April and another in May.

The past 3 months have presented many challenges to the Installations and Motor Pool sections, and although the situation seemed impossible at times, both sections surmounted all difficulties and accomplished their mission. The main problems encountered were centered around the steam heating system, outside power distribution system, water supply, transportation to airstrip, snow removal and vehicle maintenance.

The condensate pumps began to fail in October thus reducing the efficiency and capability of the Heating system. New pumps were ordered but did not arrive until late February 1956. The new pumps have been installed and the system is now working properly.

The outside power distribution system failed several times leaving the site with no power supply to the water and oil pump houses. The severe weather during the past few months have been the primary cause of failure by depositing large amounts of ice on the lines thus increasing their susceptibility to blow outs. Water rationing had to be implemented on three occasions to stretch the water supply until power line repairs could be made. We were very fortunate in that repairs were made before our water and oil supplies ran out thus saving us from the problem of trucking water and oil to the site.

In addition to the water supply problems caused by the outside power line failures, one of the water pumps failed when its valves wore out. It could not be put into operation until the valves were ground by hand. New valves and spare parts are on requisition but have not yet arrived.

Due to the inclement weather and lack of parts, providing transportation to our ice airstrip on Bartlett’s Pond has often been difficult and sometimes impossible. Heavy snowfalls have blocked the roads many times, and due to a lack of cable for our Cats, the snow removal problem has become worse. Ski support brackets for one of the snowmobiles have not arrived and the Squadron has only one snowmobile which can be used for ferrying cargo and passengers from the aircraft to the site. On one occasion it was necessary to meet two aircraft on the ice strip 13 miles from the site, about 5 hours apart. It was a busy day.

Due to the lack of parts, maintaining the vehicles has been quite a problem. However, new engines have arrived and been installed in one jeep, one snowmobile and one weapons carrier. The Motor Pool section had a difficult time maintaining these vehicles before the new engines arrived, but they improvised and managed to keep the vehicles in operation.