Memories From the Early Days
Don Jerowsky - I completed my basic training at Clinton in April-May 1951 on course #9. We were trained mainly on the AMES-11 and we were even taught to start up the diesel for auxiliary power. My first posting out of Clinton was to St. Huberts but I was only there for a few months on General Duties. From there I was posted to Scarborough. At this time they were building a small Operations room in the Canadian National Research building on Scarborough bluffs. This, upon becoming operational, was to be the ADCC until such time as Edgar was completed and we picked up that role. As the bluffs Ops room had not yet been completed we were given a vehicle and each day we would drive to Downsview airport and were employed in various odd jobs (I painted an Ames-11 antenna – brilliant yellow) and also worked with flight plans. The drive from Scarborough to Downsview took a few hours so that when we arrived we had an hour or so of work before lunch time. We would depart Downsview at around two thirty to be back at the bluffs by quitting time. You can see we did not accomplish a heck of a lot. Another small bonus was that since we never had any money, the waitresses at the airport restaurant would sneak us the odd free meal or bran muffins at lunch. To this day, I can't stand bran muffins. Once the Operations room at Scarborough was completed, we did the usual FCO thing – plotting, identification etc. for a short period of time. I cannot recall how long the operation at Scarborough lasted but it was just a short period of time. Some of the names I remember are Cec Clark, Mariner and Jim Basingtwaite. I was eventually transferred from Scarborough to Senneterre.
Norm Hicks - I joined the RCAF as a Supply Tech in April 1949, and remustered to what was then known as Clerk Operations Fighter (Clerk Ops Ftr) in April 1950. I was on contact training as a Clerk Ops Ftr from April 1950 until I was course loaded in 1951. During some of that time I was on loan to the Air Traffic Control Center in Dorval along with Suds Suthern, George Gogan, Fred Green and a few others. My original Clerk Ops Ftr course was held in St. Hubert. The course entailed plotting, triangulation, identification, display (anything except radar). Our first Ops room was in an old Fire Fighters building that was used for drying hoses. A lot of us, at that time, did not have a formal course. We completed contact training at St. Hubert and were eventually sent on what was called a "refresher course" at Clinton. In my case, I took the refresher course at Clinton in July-August 1951, and then I returned to St. Hubert. Some of our locations were at St. Hubert, Station Chatham and Scarborough – all making use of the AMES-11 radar equipment which was remoted inside buildings (CHL chassis). More locations were added later. Clerk Ops Ftr combined with Radar Ops in 1951 and became known as Fighter Control Operator (FCO) in June 1951. Our advance party left St. Hubert for Lac St. Denis in June-July 1952. The rear party continued to Lac St. Denis in August 1952.
Updated: March 7, 2003