Foymount, ON

1997 - General History - The NBC Group

Station Foymount (cite C-3, callsign Eskimo) was located 13 miles southeast of Eaganville on the historic colonial Opeongo Road, part of the northern fringe of the Highland Hills located in Renfrew country. The operations site was perched atop a mountain 1,800 feet above sea level and was on one of the highest points of land in Ontario. Construction of the radar site, which was to be called No. 203 RCAF Radio Station, commenced in the fall of 1949, and by July 1952 was at a stage where installation of electronic equipment could be carried out. The RCAF officially accepted the station and the station was declared operational on 1 September 1952.

In May 1953, 32 AC&W Squadron began full time operations in the Ground Control Intercept role. Shortly after commencing round-the-clock operations, a program was implemented which saw auxiliary members of 2416 and 2451 AC&W Squadrons, RCAF, qualify as controllers. The tactics that became standard operating procedures by CF-100 crews were formulated, tried, and perfected at RCAF Station Foymount in conjunction with 428 All Weather (Fighter) Squadron based at RCAF Station Uplands. By 1957, the unit was controlling thousands of interceptions.

In October 1963, Foymount was SAGE-capable and re-designated as a Long Range Radar. By 1966, RCAF Station Foymount was known as 32 Radar Squadron. The following year it was changed to a Canadian Forces Station as a result of unification. On 1 April 1968, the station relinquished its role as a NORAD GCI unit and became strictly a Long Range Radar facility. The station served as a field school for technicians learning to service the FYQ-47/GPA-124. In the early seventies, to role of CFS Foymount was rapidly coming to an end. With powerful radars at CFS Falconbridge Ontario and CFS Lac St. Denis Quebec easily overlapping Foymount's area of responsibility, it was hard to justify the stations further existence. Consequently, CFS Foymount was phased out in April 1974 and the station was closed on 1 October 1974.

--The NBC Group - Don Nicks, John Bradley, Chris Charland.