The original GCA crew selected for 2 (F) Wing Grostenquin France set sail from Quebec City aboard the SS Columbia in October 1952 destination Cherbourg, France. The crew consisted of F/S Maurice Bordeau, Cpl Ben Charron, Cpl Harry MacLaughlin and Cpl KD Macdonald. When we arrived at 2 Wing, the GCA unit had not yet arrived, however the appointed OC of the GCA unit, F/O Art Witham was in place. The SFCO was F/L Paul Fortin and the Tower controllers were Don McRae, Don Maclean, and Frank Major. Cpl Cy Mason was running the Flight Planning and Tower B Stands.
The GCA unit arrived in December 1952 and much to our amazement, the GCA site had not yet been surveyed nor had any of the GCA reflectors. In those days, it was common for the GCA Controllers to do the siting with a Surveyors Transit to check that the angles and positions were all correct. We learned that a Surveyors transit was not available, so Harry MacLaughlin and myself set out with a couple of round nosed shovels, a broom handle and a 100' tape to site the CLA (touchdown) and end of runway bracket reflectors; at both ends of the runway. We used the shovels and broom handle for alignment and measured the correct distance with the 100' tape, sunk a stake and moved on to the next one.
The next day we came out with the Relectors, dug a hole, and secured them. It poured rain the whole time (I think the whole month). We were then able to correctly align the GCA trailer, and with the able assistance of F/S Stan Dunn, NCO i/c technicians (we had two) got the unit on the air, and on 5 January 1953. I carried out the first GCA approach at Grostenquin with S/L "Pappy" Gibbs, commanding 430 Squadron.
Cpl Ben Charron was involved in a serious motorcycle accident and was replaced with Cpl Keith Cameron in January 1953.
It is interesting to note that the three Cpl Controllers were selected from the three bases that the quadrons originated from - Cpl MacLaughlin from North Bay (430 Squadron), Cpl Macdonald from Uplands (416 Squadron) and Cpl Charron from St. Huberts (421 Squadron).
Three squadrons of Sabres - one F/S and three Cpl Controllers, one F/S and one LAC technician!!! The Gilfillan Tech Rep, Mr Ken O'Brien arrived in January 1953.
Of additional interest: we operated for one year before the equipment was officially flight checked by a team from 6RD Trenton, and not one reflector that we initially sited and secured, in the rain, had to be repositioned.
Those were the days.
Updated: February 11, 2005