Cartwright, Labrador

1 October - 31 December
1955

The winter months have started with the beginning of this reporting period. Our first snowfall was received on 15 November along with 30 MPH winds. The high winds for October were 25 MPH, for November 30 MPH, and December 50 MPH. A long winter is in store for the men of the "922^nd".

The biggest problem encountered in the squadron this period was replacements. This is much different from last year when inexperienced replaced experienced personnel. We have very few replacements, let alone experienced personnel. Almost every section is undermanned with extensions as prevalent as 3 day passes in the states. At one point the Orderly Room was so short of personnel the Commander was typing the morning report and the Adjutant doing finance work. However this time the Orderly Room is now 100% manned.

The Dining Hall has just been getting by with three cooks and a baker. The quality of food, to put it mildly, has suffered and is not up to the level, it was a few months ago. In turn, this has had an adverse affect on morale.

With the arrival of eleven (11) new airmen in the last 2 weeks, the Operations Section has finally returned to a four crew schedule. After operating on a three crew schedule with no breaks for one hundred and twenty sic (126) days. A step forward has been made to relieve the Controller shortage by placing Radar Observers on TDY to "these places" for 90 days. The organization has received one so far, and it is hoped that the program will continue until such time as controllers are received on a PCS basis. This program has not only relieved the controller shortage, but should promote closer team work between this organization and the Fighter Interceptor Squadrons.

Breaking the other sections down in percentage manned:

The following chart indicated the squadron strength during the period:

The Orderly Room processed the following messages during October, November and December.

Promotions during the period were:

We have been very pleased with the airlift support given us by the 6615^th Air Transport Squadron. The longest period we went without mail was 17 days in December. We have also had two para drops in November. We have yet to have an ice landing. Our support base has been unable to send us a mail clerk since 11 October 1955. This made it rather difficult for the men who wished to send packages home for Christmas. Also personnel have been unable to purchase money orders since October, which is making it impossible to liquidate some minor debts, or make purchases from catalog houses, etc.

The main event of the social calendar was the party held for the children of the Grenfell Mission and Cartwright village. A separate party was held for each. The Officers, Civilians, Technical Representatives and Airmen contributed $50.00 for the purpose of buying soft drinks and small gifts. Santa Claus rode up on top of a weasel and had more than enough gifts for all. After the gifts were distributed, a movie (Red River) was shown. It is debatable as to which had the better time - the children or the airmen.

Winter sports have begun but, the enthusiasm for skiing sharply decreased when two individuals twisted their legs further than they were suppose to and were on crutches for two weeks. There has been little demand for snowshoes and the snow is pretty hard. Some of the personnel have chopped holes in the ice on a nearby lake, and caught some good size trout. All in all, photography is still the most popular outdoor pastime, with ping pong leading the indoor sports.

This site has been experiencing critical shortages of certain tube types for quite some time. Normal tube life has been exceeded many times and weak tubes have been transferred to less sensitive circuits. This situation prevails for ground-radio channels as well. Regardless of their high priority, we have not been receiving radio tubes. Some critical items have arrived at the support base and follow up action revealed that they are in air traffic, however items with lesser priority have been received.

The stock levels of the following tubes have been reduced to zero: 2039A (IFF output tubes), 371B (high voltage rectifier for FPA-3 transmitter), 1B27 (T-R tubes, FPS-3), REL-64 (FPS-502 backup search), 12AT7 (used in all radar sets), 2X2A ( PRI high voltage power supply), 5814 (master trigger generator tube for all radars).

Failure of any of these listed tubes will RCCP the respective radar and it will be redlined. Necessary supply action has been taken by this site with appropriate follow ups. Some requisitions have returned with no action, others marked back ordered or cancelled. We have been submitting another requisition in such cases. Items sent out to depot for repair and return usually take over six months to return to the site.

Radar Operational Performance:

During the month of December the receiver site was combined with the transmitter site to alleviate the manpower shortage in the communications section. One UHF and one VHF receiver was moved into the transmitter site on a trial basis. The results from the trial at the time were satisfactory, so that the remainder of the ground-air radio channels were moved into the transmitter site. Then much trouble was encountered especially with 238.4, our primary channel. At this time most of the bugs have been worked out and communications are fairly good.

Captain CF Robinson arrived on 20 October to replace Captain John Cotton as Senior Director. Captain Robinson has had much experience in the AC&W field and has done much to further the good work of Captain Cotton.

In December line firing on the rocket range was started using a T-33 as tow. Four missions were flown and a total of 16 intercepts made on the target. The percentage of successful firing passes was low because of ground communications failure and airborne radar failure. The limited time the "T bird" can remain on the range has required the director to make the intercepts with minimum displacement. An emergency occurred on 30 December. The T-33 used for towing target flamed out enroute to Goose due to fuel pump failure. The pilot attempted to make base, but when he saw it useless, he made a successful wheels up landing on the ice in Goose Bay about 7 miles short of the field.

Operational Statistics:

Some sort of praise should be given the men of the 922^nd, for the squadron is only 51% effectively manned. This is the lowest in AC&W Squadrons in NEAC, and yet the 922^nd ranks first overall in Management Evaluation Report, The Mission Progress Summary and Mission Capability Summary. The 922^nd AC&W still remains the best in the business.