RCAF Air Traffic Control

Memories of El Gorah, Egypt

It must be appreciated that life and duties at El Gorah in Egypt would change with the passing of time. I recall that there was either a Dash 7 or a Buffalo that was stationed at Al Ismaliyah and there were some air traffic control personnel working in Cairo as coordinators. One of them, as I recall, was Bob Bristol.

That is about as much as I recall about this UN task. As for me - I was in El Gorah. El Gorah was some 35 kms from Al Arish. You drove 20 kms east of El Arish towards Rapha in the Gaza strip and a further 15 kms south in the desert - and there was the camp. It was the Multinational Force and Observers duty. I was in the first contingent of Canadian Air Traffic Control personnel. The helicopter squadrons were tasked and it was not volunteer situation. If you belonged to the squadron, then you went with the squadron. Again ATC personnel were volunteers and attached to the squadron for "flight following" duty.

The tour of duty was for 6 months and I cannot remember if anyone stayed there for any longer periods of time. I recall that some asked for extentions but I don't know if extensions were granted.

There were nine Air Traffic Control personnel iat El Gorah during my tour - 1 Captain, 1 WO, 3 SGTs, 4 Cpl/MCpls. We were doing flight following - keeping track of helicopters flying in the desert. You had to record the departure time, make a contact call every 30 minutes and if there was no response, you initiated Search and Rescue. It was very busy on some occasions when all the chopers were flying.