The following article is from RCAF Radar 1941-1945 (Royal Canadian Air Force Personnel on Radar in Canada During World War II) and is used with permission of the author, WW McLachlan
It was early May 1943 as the CNR train pulled into the station at Tusket, Nova Scotia after an all day trip from Halifax. Motor transport driver Archie Coutts was waiting for me on the platform, ready to go to the RCAF Station in the Air force blue panel truck.
The station was a couple of miles away. It had been built on a raised piece of land called "Blueberry Hill" by the local folks. Looking back after spending a year and a half at this location I remember it as a very good place to be stationed, it had a strength of about seventy-five men and everybody got along fine.
The radar operators did their raison d'etre, plotting aircraft on their screens, the radar technicians kept the electronics tuned up, the diesel men generated the electricity to run the equipment and the cooks made some very fine meals. The place ran like a well-oiled machine.
However some 'blips' do come to mind. Like the night the OC was called to the OPS shack in a hurry. The OPS shack was in a fenced off compound area, entry was through a gate where an armed guard was stationed and he would want to see your ID card. The OC rushed through the gate and he did not bother to show his ID card as he knew the guard knew him of course - but the guard rightly challenged him to show his ID. The OC did not stop so the guard fired a shot in the air from his rifle. WOW, that stopped the OC alright. The guard was only doing his duty, but it was an over reaction, I suppose. However I don't think anything ever came of it, except the guard was quietly posted to another location.
Speaking of guards or 'security guards' as the trade was known, there was the Roth, St Louis battle. Roth and St Louis were both guards. Roth had the upper bunk, St Louis the lower. They were situated at the end of the barracks by a window. Roth was a blue eyed pink cheeked, non-smoking Swiss, and a barber in civilian life. He liked fresh air and the outdoors. St Louis was a chain-smoking Montreal taxi driver. So going to bed one night Roth opened the window wide to enjoy the cool night air. A few minutes later St Louis got up and closed the window, then Roth got up and opened the window again. This went on for a while when St Louis left and came back with a hammer and a couple of nails and nailed the window closed. So life wasn't always sweetness and light.
Movies provided, mostly I think by the YMCA, were shown in the mess hall twice a week. Sunday was a full uniform occasion, when friends and relatives were invited - that was fine, no complaints. Wednesday nights were however a "just for the guys" night. Come as you wish, bring your beer, smoke all you like, just relax. So one day the station adjutant, a Flying Officer, issued an order that all the station personnel were to attend the next Wednesday movie night in full uniform - Sunday routine. The reason was he was bringing a lady friend from Yarmouth to the movie. When eight o'clock came, the adjutant arrived at the mess hall with his lady to find the place empty except for the projector and I think one airman. All the men were in the canteen and refused to go to the movie.
The adjutant must have been quite embarassed, he probably expected to have his lady impressed, by everyone coming to attention as they came in. If I remember correctly, the stand-off ended with the adjutant taking his lady back to the Officer's Mess and then the men went in to see the movie, and that was that.
We had very good relations with the people in the area, the girls would invite us to strawberry socials. I remember skating on a pond, it was reminiscent of a Currier and Ives Christmas card. The gentleman who headed up the Nova Scotia Power Co Tusket system, Bud Russell, was always invited to our banquets.
One night after a thunder and lightning storm we received a phone call from the town of Tusket that lightning had struck the church, and started a fire in the belfry, would we come to put it out? A group of us climbed into the Army 4X4 truck and sped to Tusket. If we had only had a bell, a siren and flashing red lights, what a magnificient sight we would have been. An airman Pete Vaillancourt, a diesel fitter, and another airman climbed up into the belfry with a fire extinguisher and put the fire out. They should have received the keys to the Town for their services as the fire in the wooden structure was well on it's way, and the wooden church would have been consumed.
My tme at Tusket was coming to an end, as I was posted to the Air Base at Gander Newfoundland. Early in the morning of September 1944, Archie Coutts, the man who met me a year and a half earlier on my arrival, now took me in the same blue panel truck to the railway station on my way to further unknown adventures.
DD Chalmers, Jan 6th 2003
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Updated: August 26, 2003