On guard against air attack from the north are thousands of American airmen stationed at isolated radar sites in wilderness areas of Canada and northern United States.
Few of these remote air defense command stations have full-time chaplains, so they are served by auxiliary chaplains (civilian pastors of nearby churches) and by air force chaplains - "Sky pilots" - flown in from large air force bases.
Attached to the 475th fighter group at Wold-Chamberlain air force base, for instance are three flying chaplains who not only serve the base but also 11 radar units and ground observer corps in Canada, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin.
Senior chaplain in this trio is Captain Kenneth Hamstra, 30, 9219 Second Avenue S., a graduate of Huron South Dakota college and until last January a chaplain stationed in Japan. In these pictures he is shown on a tour of duty to a remote radar site near Sioux Lookout, Canada - one of the spots that he or one of his two deputy chaplains visits once a month
As some of these photos show, Mr. Hamstra carries out a six point program for isolated airmen: worship, religious and moral education, personal counseling, humanitarian services, public relations and cultural leadership.
Although from a religious standpoint he can administer only to Protestants (he's a Presbyterian), he counsels airmen from all faiths and makes arrangements to meet the religious needs of Roman Catholics and Jews.
In a helicopter, Chaplain Kenneth Hamstra gets a good view of the Canadian wilderness north of the Minnesota border as he approaches the radar site near Sioux Lookout. The latter is the supply point for the Ontario "bush" country.
Flying from Minneapolis to the Canadian radar site, Chaplain Hamstra relaxes with a magazine. He's used to air travel.
After landing at the Sioux Lookout radar site, Mr. Hamstra is greeted by Major Vincent Nash (right), commanding officer of the 915th aircraft control and warning squadron. and by Sgt. Darrell McKinley (left) crew chief from Kilgore, Texas. Helicopter pilot is Lt. Edmund Fischbeck of Bloomington.
Unhappy to see Mr. Hamstra, unlike human personnel at the base was this sentry dog, King, trained to dislike everyone except his handler A/2C Tom Libert of Beverly, Massachusetts.
The chaplain talks over housing problems with Captain WL Bates (left) whose family lives in Minneapolis for lack of accommodations at the base, and Captain and Mrs. Lyle L Ahner (that's their son, DeWayne, 3, in foreground). Mrs. Ahner had to return to Minneapolis because she couldn't find a place to live in the area. Eleven trailers like those in the background are on the base and a new trailer park is being built for 18 more trailers.
Mr. Hamstra conducts a general Protestant church service, with communion, in the enlisted men's day room. Also administering to the religious needs of airmen are two auxiliary chaplains, a Roman Catholic priest and a Protestant minister from Sioux Lookout.
Mr. Hamstra meets with the base's two auxiliary chaplains from Sioux Lookout - the Reverend Denis Shea (left) of Sacred Heart Catholic church and the Reverend John Klassen of St. Andres United church. Father Shea conducts mass for Roman Catholic airmen.
Chaplain Hamstra answers a call for help from A/2C Barry Cohen and his wife, Charlotte, of Philadelphia, Pa. He promises to arrange for a rabbi to be flown to perform Jewish rites in case Mrs. Cohen's expected baby is a boy.
An early morning walk carried Chaplain Hamstra past the mechanical "heart" of the base's warning system - a radar dome with its pressurized plastic bubble, called the "big bag". The main sweep antenna sends out radar signals and receives echos from any aircraft in their path.
The chaplain visits every man on the job and here chats with A/1C Richard Rose (left) of Mt. Jewett, Pa., and A/1C James R Scott of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Plotting board charts location of aircraft in area.
Hopefully, some of these photos will bring back some memories to those who once served at the Sioux Lookout Pinetree Line radar station.
This article and the accompanying photos were taken from the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune Picture Magazine, dated October 14, 1956. The detail was provided to the Pinetree Line web site by Ron Ross, who served a tour in Sioux Lookout in 1956.
-- Ren L’Ecuyer, January, 1999.
