Cartwright, Labrador

922^nd Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron,
APO 677, New York, New York

Israel D Siegel, Major, USAF

AN/FPS-3C Search Radar (1ea); AN/FPS-502 Search Radar (1ea); AN/FPS-14 Search Radar (3ea); AN/TPS-502 Height Finding Radar (1ea); GRC/27 Multi-Channel UHF Transmitter and Receiver (4ea); GRT-3 Single Channel UHF Transmitter (4ea); GRR-7 Single Channel UHF Receiver (4ea); FRT-502 Single Channel VHF Transmitter (4ea); FRT-503 Single Channel Transmitter (1ea); URG-60 Single Channel Receiver (5ea).

Normal surveillance and GCI activities have been carried on in operations over the quarter. At times the routine was slightly disrupted by efforts to improve the physical layout of the darkroom. January 23 was the completion date of a stripping and repainting job on the vertical plotting board. The board is now in accord with ADCR 55-54 and ADCR 55-54A. Other improvements included the addition of an 0A- 175 PPI scope on 16 March by Radar Maintenance, realignment of the Controller, Director Information File to comply with 64^th AD (D) Letter 9 February 1959, and complete rewiring of the intercommunication system by Wire Maintenance.

The rewiring of our internal communications has improved our surveillance and training program in several ways. The new lines allow us to use individual scope to plotter lines for two plotters whenever traffic or tactics dictate. The five line communications box from the moving target indicator, the AN/UPS-T5, was rewired in the changeover to allow simulated fighter control from any of the 4 PPI scopes in the operations room.

System Training Missions through out the division are being performed on a regular schedule. The 922^nd’s first STM was a site centered exercise on 9 February. The program was received favorably and has added to our normal training.

A representative of the 5^th Weather Group, Detachment #3 arrived here on the 26^th of January to instruct operations personnel on correctly observing the weather and proper weather reporting procedures. Twelve operations personnel received instructions and they in turn instructed 21 others in February. Reporting the weather hourly to Goose Air Base has at times become a problem due to slippage’s in our operations and/or problems of bookkeeping and records at our Master Direction Center. Much time is now being spent filing Weather bulletins sent to MDC to allow for double checks in the event any discrepancies are noted.

Special missions which involved operations in the past three months included a Division conducted ORI for all units of the 4732^nd Air Group (Defense), a joint ADC, SAC mission "Blast Off" and a combined USAF, RCAF exercise "Cue Ball # 18".

The ORI took place on the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th of March. As a result of performance demonstrated during the ORI, three of our directors were up-graded to Skilled, one was awarded a Qualified certificate and another was placed in Alert Ready status.

Lts. Harper, Humphreys and Mossberg were rotated to the States during the quarter, all were from operations. Their replacements, Captain Hoerl and Lts. Mead and Goodwillie have all arrived before the end of this period. In order to preclude losses of this nature in the future Major Siegel has curtailed Lt. Mead three months, Captain Hoerl two months and Lt. Goodwillie one month. With Lt. Moren’s replacement expected early in April this will spread the transfer of directors over a four month period rather than have them all arriving and departing over a 45 day stretch.

Assumption of command at the detachments.

9 January 1959 Captain Charles A Neuendorf relieved 1^st Lt. Carl E Mossberg of command of Detachment #3.

6 February 1959 1^st Lt. Keith W Langley relieved Captain Chester H Wheeless of command of Detachment #2 to allow Captain Wheeless to return to Goose Air Base to fulfil AFR 60-2 requirements. On 11 March Lt. Langley returned the command to Captain Wheeless.

20 January 1959 Lt. Langley relieved Captain Nuendorf of command of Detachment #3 to allow Captain Nuendorf to fulfil his flying requirements.

Radio failure appears as the predominant problem in equipment performance over the past quarter. In January the radio equipment in the transmitter-receiver building was on auxiliary power for 64 hours due to primary power trouble. IEO replaced a transformer and no further power problems occurred. Severe weather was given as cause of failure. Weather again was blamed in March when radio problems once more came into focus. This time the difficulty was traced to the UHF-505 antenna systems. Often when trouble-shooting was attempted the symptoms would disappear before repairs were begun. Diagnosis was given as shorting due to freezing and thawing of moisture in the antennae. With the advent of Spring and above freezing days followed by freezing nights, this problem could become even more serious. Radio maintenance will continue to monitor this problem and should it continue, a depot assistance antenna-team will be requested.

Significant accomplishments of the maintenance people included rewiring of the main frame for operations and the installation of the GPS-T2 which was completed on 23 January. This important training device is the key to our new STM program in that it puts the filmed tracks onto the video display of the scopes.

At the end of the period preparations were being made by Radar Maintenance and Supply to move in the 0A8-40 SIF equipment. As March ended an area had been cleared in tower 3 and one truckload if equipment had been moved from the dockside warehouse to the site.

Major Siegel called a meeting on the 2^nd of February of key staff officers to form an operations plan for messing and cooking outside of the dining hall and kitchen this summer. Nicknamed operation "Cook Out" this plan became necessary when plans to renovate the present mess hall during June and July were confirmed. Staff officers who aided in forming operation "Cook Out" included Captain Paul E Holland, Supply; Captain Marion N Mickelson, IEO; Lt. William Chavez, Administration, and Lt. Usher A Moren, Food Services.

Supply ordering, stocking and recording for all detachments was turned over to the individual detachments on the 15^th of January. At a preliminary meeting personnel from each of the detachments were briefed on supply responsibility and accountability in addition to difficulties of supply organizations in this area. Although the detachments have been given the supply function, Staff and Command responsibility remains with the 922^nd.

Community aid was tendered by several members of the squadron on the evening of 5 March when a fire destroyed a store in Cartwright. Four airmen and three attached civilians were sent with a D-8 cat and weasel to aid in battling the blaze. Although they arrived too late to save the store they were able to aid in preventing the spread of the fire to any of the nearby buildings.

On March 9^th the Commander was advised that the 922^nd was the winner of the 64^th Air Division (Defense) annual fire prevention trophy for the period 1 July to 31 December, 1958. Captain Mickelson received the trophy at 64^th Headquarters on behalf of Major Siegel. In a letter of congratulations from the 4732 Air Defense Group (ADC), Colonel James R Wergin stated: "The winning of this award shows that much time and effort has been applied in this extremely important area." A statement well justified by Captain Mickleson’s Fire Team and all the members of the squadron.

Morale has been good over the last three months. Many new arrivals have helped by filling vacancies left by "Operation Santa Claus". The Airmen’s club and the NCO club have both been repainted and spruced up due to the fine efforts of the members. The biggest boost to morale however came from the granting of authority to make personal phone calls on off duty hours to home via our administrative lines to Goose. Calls are long distance collect from Goose to the individuals Stateside number. An indication of the popularity of the program is the approximately 120 calls made by personnel since inception of the plan on 15 March to the end of this reporting period 31 March.

Israel D Siegel, Major, USAF