Chapter Ten
On November 20, a TWX came through from Goose Bay ordering Lt. Martin and Sgt. Redd to take the next available MATS plane, with their medical equipment, back to CONUS. Luke said good-byes to Ian, Sarah and her family and his Officer friends. However, it was not until November 22, that a Navy MATS C-54 came through to pick them, and the few remaining engineers up.
They were scheduled to leave at 5:30 pm, over three hours after sunset. And there waiting by the plane were Ian Bulloch, Sarah and her family, the Inuit headman, and several other Eskimos, and Officer friends. Luke and Ian shook hands. They had become good friends, and it was not easy to part. But he found it hardest to say goodbye to Sarah. There were tears in her eyes as she thanked him for his tutelage in medicine, for his care of her family, and for the scholarship. Nothing had been said, but she seemed to know who had given the money for her nurse’s training.
Luke gave her a hug, his home address, and asked her to write. Then he climbed aboard the plane, waved through the window at his friends, and they flew off into the night for the three and a half hour flight to Goose Bay, Labrador.
There they spent about two hours refuelling and refreshing before proceeding by the same plane to Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where they arrived some four hours thirty minutes late. However, they were not allowed to land because of ground fog, and were diverted to Boston’s Bradley Field. Here they were ordered to unload all their equipment and baggage from the plane for customs inspections, and then reload it before being allowed to fly back to Westover Field.
There Luke and Sgt. Redd arranged for transport of their equipment back to Camp Kilmer, and said goodbye to the last of the 973rd engineers. They then returned to Camp Kilmer by train, arriving there after 36 sleepless hours.
The next few weeks were spent on the paperwork trail. Luke and Sgt. Redd had to take an Army truck back up to Westover Field to get their medical equipment themselves, due to a snafu in shipment orders, only to find that it was shipped by the transportation Officer just before they arrived, so they unknowingly passed it on the highway. But so it is with Army efficiency!
During this time Luke was able to get in a little R and R at nearby New York and New Haven.
On December 13, Sgt. Redd drove Luke back to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in his own car, where they said their good-byes.
Luke reported in, expecting orders transferring him back to Fort Sam Houston, but instead he received orders to fly to Ottawa on temporary duty to participate in hearings on the two Russian prisoners and the RCAF spy he had dealt with at Frobisher Bay. And he was to leave the next day.
He called his parents out in Colorado, and reassured them that he was back safely. He told them that his mission was still classified as Secret; however, they had already gleaned much of the so-called Secret information from the press about his mission.
The next morning Luke caught a commercial flight from Washington National Airport to Ottawa, where he transferred to a prearranged hotel. The following morning he transferred to RCAF headquarters, and was guided to the hearing room.
RCAF General LaBow presided, and stated that the hearing had been called to determine how to proceed with the handling of the two Russian prisoners, and the turncoat RCAF Sergeant recently sent to Ottawa from Frobisher Bay. A Colonel from the Judge Advocate General Corps represented the United States Air Force, and several diplomats from the United States State Department and their Canadian counterparts represented the governments of the United States and Canada. And Luke was delighted to see that his good friend, Corporal Ian Bulloch was representing the RCMP, and they greeted each other warmly.
The General started by having the traitorous radioman, Sergeant Wilcoff, brought in. He was accompanied by an RCAF attorney, and led in by air police.
The general opened interrogation by asking him if he were guilty of passing secret information to Russia and to Moscow Molly. His attorney advised him not to reply, but he broke down and openly admitted his guilt. He said his family had all come from Russia, the Soviets threatened to harm relatives in Moscow if he did not cooperate, and they had also paid him for his information. And he admitted transferring secret documents to the Russian airmen who had parachuted into Frobisher.
The General said, "Well, I do not think there is much question about this man. The RCAF will court-martial him with charges of high treason, espionage, and passing secret information to a foreign government. He has already given us much information about an elaborate spy network operating at military bases throughout the United States and Canada. If there are no other comments, we shall proceed to the two Russian prisoners.
This turned on a light in Luke’s mind. Could that occupational therapy student, Lt. Ann Orloff, back at Fort Sam Houston be involved? He hoped not, because she really attracted him, but he would have to file away the thought for future reference.
The General then called in the two Russian prisoners. He detailed the circumstances surrounding their capture, and mentioned the delicacy of the situation with regard to the Cold War with Russia. He had the Russian airman brought in by wheelchair with his leg in a cast. He was queried through an interpreter, and freely admitted that he, two other airmen, and a medic were ordered to parachute into Frobisher, where they would receive secret information on the air base and radar station planted in a secret cache, which they did. The two other airmen had escaped with it aboard the submarine #84.
The General said, "The Canadian government feels that this man should be kept in a military hospital in a locked ward until his broken leg heals, and then should be transferred to a military prison to stand trial for illegal entry into Canada, and attempted espionage. Are there any comments?"
There seemed to be general agreement among the group, and the American State Department representative commented that both Washington and Ottawa were negotiating with the Kremlin for his release, and he thought it was quite possible that the Soviets might be willing to push the Korean peace effort in return for the overlooking of the recent submarine and parachuting incident at Frobisher by the American-Canadian alliance, but he agreed that the Russian airman should be kept in prison and readied for trial at the moment.
General LaBow then ordered the Russian medic, Sergeant Tatyana Nikolsky, to appear. Luke noted that she was as attractive as ever, and he nodded recognition to her as she came in. The General asked her to tell her story about the Frobisher incident, and she told the group that she had been ordered to parachute in to provide medical support for the three Soviet airmen, detailed that one airman had suffered a severe compound fracture of the right tibia, and praised Lt. Luke Martin and the Canadian military hospital system for his care.
General LaBow then asked her if she carried arms or was trained for combat, and she replied in the negative. He then asked her if she had engaged in any espionage activities, and she again denied it. He then asked for comments from the group.
Luke immediately spoke up and asked her how the Soviet airman’s leg was doing, and she replied, "It is healing well, but because of the severity of the injury, his doctors say it will probably take two to three months of treatment, and then considerable physical therapy before he recovers completely. I compliment you and the RCAF doctors on his care. He was treated as well as all the other Canadian patients in the hospital."
Luke then addressed the group and said, "Gentlemen, I should like to make a proposal. Since Nikolosky is a non-combatant medic, and apparently committed no espionage or sabotage, her only charge would be entering Canada illegally. And she was very cooperative, and helpful to me in caring for her patient at my aid station. Therefore, why not just deport her from Canada back to Russia? This would make the punishment fit the crime, and it might grease the wheels of diplomacy in the Kremlin to encourage them to lean on the North Koreans for an armistice at P’anmunjom."
This idea seemed to impress everyone favourable, and the diplomats present agreed to raise this idea with their superiors in Ottawa and Washington.
After the hearing was concluded, Luke was able to speak with Sgt. Nikolosky. She thanked him for trying to help her, and they parted rather reluctantly, wishing each other well.
Luke also spoke with Ian Bulloch, and they arranged to meet at Luke’s hotel that evening for dinner. There Ian said that Sgt. Wilcoff had told him that there was a large Russian spy ring at the military bases in the San Antonio area!
After a very pleasant evening, Luke and his friend Ian parted company, and Luke turned in for the night.
The next day Luke caught a flight back to DC, and checked back in at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There he was relieved as commanding officer of the 1st Provisional Medical Detachment. He was given orders reading that he would receive two week leave, after which he was to report back to the Medical Field Service School, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for permanent duty as Instructor in Field Medicine and Surgery, as of January 2, 1953.
Luke was overjoyed at the idea of leave, and arranged to take the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Washington to St. Louis along the Ohio River, and then the Rock Island Rocket on to his home in Colorado Springs, where he was met by his parents.
They had a nice reunion together. He regaled them with tales of the beauty, and yet stark reality of the sub-arctic, and its fascinating Inuit inhabitants. He touched lightly on military matters, which were still classified as secret; however, it was obvious that much supposedly secret material had been leaked to the public by the press and other news media. And also one of Luke’s fellow Officers, who was from Colorado Springs, had openly talked about the mission with his parents, who had spread the gossip around town.
Luke presented his father with a beautiful cribbage board, carved from a walrus tusk, and other pieces of ivory carving. And he gave his mother two gorgeous silver fox pelts to be used as a collar on her new winter coat. They were very happy about it.
They had a nice Christmas together. Then on December 31, Luke boarded a Colorado and Southern train headed for Dallas. There he switched to an MKT train bound for San Antonio, where he arrived on January 1, 1953. He transferred to the Bachelor Officer Quarters at Fort Sam Houston, and signed in at Brook Army Medical Center and the Medical Field Service School.
Updated: August 3, 2002