Fire Walkers: Chapter 1 – A Nuclear Challenge

Written by Harold McNeill on February 23rd, 2011. Posted in Fire Department


P1180045

Photo (1961): USAF Crash Rescue Crew From Cold Lake taken while in training at CFB Camp Borden
(Photo: Courtesy of Guy Venne)

Top Row: U/K, Ken Cuthbert, Les Eshelman, Al Edstrom, Ed Vallee, George Grimstead, Morris Hill,
Wally Armstrong, Fred Bamber, Roy MacDonald, U/K, Art Axani
Front Row: U/K, Instructor, Instructor, Harold McNeill, Instructor, Guy Venne, Instructor, U/K,
Denis Armstrong, Derek Bamber, U/K
(All names subject to clarification — Click photo to open, then click again for full-size download or printing. Names in bold, all Cold Lake High School buddies)

October 14, 2017 (4200)

Fire Walkers: A Nuclear Challenge

2011 will mark the 50th Anniversary of a unique experience in my life and that of several friends and neighbours from the Cold Lake area of Alberta. Forty-five men, ranging in age from twenty to thirty-eight, were selected to work as Civilian Crash Rescue Firefighters for the US Air Force at the Strategic Air Command base being built at the RCAF Station Cold Lake. For a full list of names of those selection Link here to Chapter 6,

Two other SAC bases built in Canada were also selecting civilians to perform the same duty – 45 for Namao (just outside Edmonton) and another 60 for Churchill in Manitoba. All were to be trained over the summer and fall of 1961 at the Crash Rescue Fire Fighter School in Camp Borden, Ontario, a school that had an established reputation as being the best in the business.

While a few of the men destined for Cold Lake had small town, volunteer firefighter experience, most, including myself, were taken in as raw recruits. Over a period of five months spread over two training groups, the men moved from the training stage to manning a full-service Fire Department.  This included a process to select a Fire Chief and Crew Chiefs from within the ranks of those trained at Borden.

The expedited process resulted from the reluctance of the RCAF, in the politically charged climate of the deep Cold War, to have RCAF personnel fully integrated into what was essentially an independent USAF operation on Canadian soil.

For their part, the USAF was not able to field a sufficient number of firefighters to perform this duty due to a rapidly expanding Cold War StrikeNuclear Explosion Force that stretched around the world. This included manning over 450 SAC bases within the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.

The threat of a nuclear attack and potential annihilation of mankind was one of the most feared events throughout the 1950s and 60s. The proliferation of nuclear weapons following the Second World Wars and the resultant partition of Europe lead to almost continuous conflict from 1914 through 1975 (the end of the Viet Nam War).

An all out Nuclear War between the Western Democracies and Russia would most certainly have ended life on earth as we know it. By way of comparison, the current day “war on terror” is a rather trivial event.

It was a time in our history when the Cold War mentality paralyzed much of the world and a time when Canada hosted a nuclear arsenal that was globally fifth in size behind only the United States, Russia, England, and France. The nuclear weapons in Canada, the subject of secret agreements, were stored across the country as well as carried aboard giant B52 bombers that circled high in the skies above the Canadian Arctic twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  The giant USAF Base at Goose Bay hosted between 12,000 and 15,000 USAF personnel in what was one of the largest USAF bases outside the United States.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons and a massive build-up of SAC bombers, as well as support aircraft and personnel, was a hot-button issue in Canada for almost 20 years. This story tracks the experience of that small group of men from Cold Lake who became a small part of the much larger story of Canada’s involvement in fighting the ‘Cold War’, a war that began in the 1950s and continued through to the end of the Viet Nam War. Join the Fire Walkers from Cold Lake as these young men embark upon on an exciting new challenge.

Fire Walkers: Flying into a Firestorm

A large plume of thick black smoke rising some distance beyond the horizon sent a shiver up my spine. It was obviously oil based and was coming from the direction of the RCAF Station at Cold Lake. My first thought – perhaps a CF-104 jet fighter had crashed, or it could have been one of the giant US Air Force K-97 refueling tankers stationed there.  The volume of smoke surging several thousand feet into the sky suggested a fire of much larger proportions than the crash of either a fighter jet or even a fully loaded tanker. A bomb?

Photoshop Composite In the early afternoon, the sun was high in the sky and the weather calm as I climbed through 2000 feet heading toward the plume. It was my third day off from duties at the SAC base and had borrowed a small seaplane to make a trip to LacLaBiche, about 125 miles northwest of Cold Lake, to visit some friends I had lived with while hauling fish from various small lakes in that area.

As I continued, I fervently hoped no one had been killed or injured and that my comrades in the Fire Department were all OK.  In twenty minutes I would radio the Cold Lake Tower to provide notice of my position and estimated time through the northern edge of the control zone.

Although I was not landing at the base, contact with the Control Tower was mandatory and, as well, most civilian pilots used the Base Flight Services to file cross-country flight plans.  It was also mandatory to obtain permission to enter any portion of the Restricted Zone known as the Primrose Air Weapons Testing Range; today, however, I would skirt the southwest corner of the range.

While RCAF tower personnel were extremely helpful to civilian flights, which included the restricted use of the runways, it had to be remembered it was still a military base that followed strict security protocols. As far as we were concerned, with Russia, our northern neighbour, and the United States on the south locked in a deadly game of nuclear brinkmanship such as that which occurred during the Cuban Missle Crisis, World War Three, was just button push around the corner.

Background: The Cold War of the 50s and 60s

As the Cold War continued to build through the 1950s, fear of communism reached epidemic proportions in the United States as men like Senator Joseph McCarthy stoked the fires of fear in his desperate search for communists, communist sympathizers and even persons who might have at one time known a communist. The US government, military, and media continued the spin by speculating on the possibility of Russia launching a sneak nuclear attack.

US State and Federal Governments, as well as average citizens, were building bomb shelters by the thousands and school children were required to participate in regular training designed to ‘shield’ them from the effects of an atomic blast.

In Canada the general public, while well aware of the dangers posed by the nuclear build-up, took a much phlegmatic view. The Federal Government, on the other hand, first under the leadership Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, then Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson began building shelters across the Dew Sitecountry – shelters to shield Senior Government and Military Leaders in the event of a Russian attack. These bunkers became derisively nicknamed “Diefenbunkers” by the public and press.

In a little know side story of political intrigue, a Junior Cabinet Minister in the Pearson government, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, resigned his cabinet post in protest to the secret approval to move more nuclear weapons into Canada.

After Trudeau assumed power as Prime Minister in 1968, all nuclear weapons were removed from Canada.  This quickly led to our own Canada-US small “c” cold war. The negative position Canada took toward the Viet Nam war also added to the challenges between the countries in much the same manner as did our reluctance to join the US/British invasion of Iraq.

During the Diefenbaker and Pearson years, the US Government sought and received permission to build 63 Distant Early Warning Radar (DEW) Stations across the Canadian High Arctic as well as another 40 across mid-Canada, the Pinetree Line.

These radar stations, stretching from the western reaches of Alaska to eastern shores of Greenland, were designed to provide a continuous screen that would detect any Russian aircraft encroaching upon northern Canadian airspace.  In addition to the radar stations, the large contingent of USAF personnel at Goose Bay manned a nuclear strike force capable of reaching Eastern Europe. As well, Canada maintained a fleet of Argus surveillance aircraft that crisscrossed the Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea tracking Russian nuclear-equipped submarines.

During this same period, the RCAF received delivery of new fighter jets, the CF-101 Voodoo and CF-104 Starfighter, capable of carrying nuclear-armed bombs and missiles into battle. At the RCAF Stations in Cold Lake, Namao (outside Edmonton) and Churchill (Manitoba), the USAF was building new SAC bases to host the dozens of KC-97 Stratotankers needed to refuel their bomber force. Nuclear Weapons Book

The sole purpose behind these massive defense systems was preparation for a sneak attack by Russians. USAF nuclear-armed bombers stationed high in the skies above Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland could, on a moments notice, launch a counterattack designed to decimate Russian cities and military facilities. The ability to launch such a deadly strike became widely known as “Mutual Assured Destruction” (MAD). The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, under the leadership of President Kennedy, took the world to the brink of that nuclear armageddon.

Photo:  Two excellent books on US Nuclear Weapons in Canada were researched and written by John Clearwater.  The books trace the political and military history as well as providing a complete list of US Military Installations in Canada.  It includes the only reference I could find to the SAC Base at Cold Lake.

While these world challenging events were part of the thinking of the day, my immediate concerns as a young man just out of his teens were much more pragmatic – getting and holding a good job, building up my flying time, going to a party on the next weekend off and wondering whether that lovely young French Canadian girl I was dating was still mad at me about the drive-in ‘incident’ with another girl. Such were the priorities of a twenty-year-old Canadian farm boy in the 1960s.

The first batch of twenty-four recruits from Cold Lake, the group to which I was assigned, was to leave for training in Camp Borden in late July with the second group to follow in October.  USAF personnel from Nelles AFB and other US locations were assigned set up the SAC Fire Hall at Cold Lake and provide interim fire protection until our group finished training in October. The concept of hiring, training and forming fully operational fire department from scratch over a five-month period was an unprecedented and, as it turned out, a very successful operation.

It was an exciting time for everyone and although many of us had worked for the RCAF in various capacities – generally as day labourers during the school holidays – it was an entirely new level of challenge and opportunity to be fully integrated into the Air Force, especially the US Air Force Strategic Air Command, in a frontline capacity.  Being able to do so while maintaining our civilian status was also considered a prerequisite as the younger single members of our troop had had our share of run-ins with the local RCAF chaps – mostly in matters dealing with their dating ‘our’ girls.  The audacity of those air force guys knew no bounds.

A Personal Challenge

Before we were due to leave for Borden I encountered a personal challenge with my Driver’s Licence, a challenge that very nearly cost me the job.  A firm requirement for being hired was holding a valid and subsisting Alberta Driver’s Licence. Although I had never been charged with any driving offence, my driving history from fifteen (when I first qualified for a licence) to twenty, on being hired, was less than stellar.  On several occasions, I received verbal warnings from the town cop, Dick Skinty. The same happened in other towns and I had occasionally escaped being charged by the ‘skin of my teeth’.

As fate would have it, my dalliances behind the wheel of my 1954 Ford V8, finally caught up with me at a most inopportune time. In early June, not long after I had been selected to attend the Fire School, Constable Skinty observed me dropping a strip of rubber and driving in a ‘reckless’ manner along the main street in Cold Lake.  He caught up to me a little later and issued a traffic summons requiring that I attend Provincial Court to have a judge review the matter.

At the hearing, the judge assessed a two-month suspension – I was devastated. It seemed certain it would cost me the job so after leaving court I approached Constable Skinty, with whom I was generally on good terms, and asked if something might be done to reduce the suspension to one month. To his credit and to my everlasting relief, he spoke to the Judge after court and I had my licence back within the month along with a stern warning that I simply had to stop driving like an idiot. Without any hesitation, I promised.  Did I keep that promise?  Well, yes, for the most part.

In late July 1961, our small cadre of firefighter want-a-bees was off to Borden.

Harold McNeill
February 2011

Polar View of North America Russia

View from over the North Pole shows the proximity of Canada and Russia.  USAF bombers, on a constant sortie over the Canadian Arctic, were within striking distance of Russia and Eastern Europe.

Dew and Pinetree Line

Location of the 63 Distant Early Warning Sites in the Northern Arctic and a further 39 sites, called the Pinetree (Mid-Canada) Line, were built in the late 1950s and early 60s. They stretched across Canada from the Alaska border and Vancouver Island in the West to St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador in the east.  One site, still present, at Alsask, SK, is near the farm in which my Grandparents and mother (Laura) lived until 1924.
The radar installations were only a small part of the US presence in Canada during the 50s and 60s.

KC-97 on Refuel Run

c1961 A KC-97 Tanker refuels one of the USAF SAC bombers high over the Canadian Arctic. This scene would have been repeated many times a day over nearly a decade. The bombers, loaded with nuclear weapons, were prepared to strike deep within Russia at the first sign of an attack against the United States.

(4716)

(Visited 1,291 times, 1 visits today)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Trackback from your site.

Comments (1)

Leave a comment

 

Comments

  • Mike Fedorowich

    September 1, 2023 |

    I have gone through the above noted text and have found it quite informative.
    I am a former member with several law enforcement agencies from across Canada.
    I worked in the First Nations service under the authority of the RCMP with the over sight of the OPP. My law enforcement service was conducted under the authority of the Nishnawbe – Aski Police Service in North West Ontario the Louis Bull Police Sevice in Hobbema AB, the Kitasoo Xaixais Police Service in Northern in side passage on Swindle Island, the Lac Suel Police Service North West Ontario and the Vancouver Transit Authority Sky Train Police Service. I’m presently dealing with an RCMP member for falsifying a report against me for a road rage event. Court case is finished and the charge was dropped but I have an on going complaint with the member and have forwarded to the WATCH DOGS IN OTTAWA FOR the RCMP review and consideration. I believe the said officer is in violation of his oath of office and should be held accountable for falsifying his RTCC all the while dragging me through the court system here in Nanaimo. RCMP continue to stonewall the appeal but Ottawa and the crowns office are still looking into the matter. if your able and find the time or the interest in this very brief introduction, I would very much like to speak with you and would be grateful to hear any wisdom that may come across from your end. I served with First Nations Police Services for ten years in isolation and six years with Transit Police out of New West Minster. I do value and appreciate any time you could spare to chat for a bit on this particular subject matter. Respectfully with out anger but an open mind, Mike Fedorowich Nanaimo BC 250 667 0060

  • Harold McNeill

    February 28, 2022 |

    Hi Robert, I do remember some of those folks from my early years in Cold Lake (Hazel was my aunt and our family spent many fond times with Uncle Melvin, Aunt Hazel and Family. I knew Lawrence and Adrian. Having read a half dozen accounts it is clear their were many false narratives and, perhaps, a few truths along the way. I tried my best to provide an even account from what I read. Cheers, Harold. (email: Harold@mcneillifestories.com)

  • Robert Martineau

    February 25, 2022 |

    Its been a long time since any post here, but its worth a shot. My Grandfather was Hazel Wheelers brother Lawrence, and son to Maggie and Adrien. Maggie Martineau (nee Delaney) is my great grandmother. The books and articles to date are based on the white mans viewpoint and the real story as passed down by the Elders in my family is much more nefarious. Some of the white men were providing food for the Indians in exchange for sexual favors performed by the Squaws. Maggie was the product of one of those encounters. Although I am extremely proud of my family and family name, I am ashamed about this part of it.

  • Julue

    January 28, 2022 |

    Good morning Harold!
    Gosh darn it, you are such a good writer. I hope you have been writing a book about your life. It could be turned into a movie.
    Thanks for this edition to your blog.
    I pray that Canadians will keep their cool this weekend and next week in Ottawa. How do you see our PM handling it? He has to do something and quick!
    Xo Julie

  • Herb Craig

    December 14, 2021 |

    As always awesome job Harold. It seems whatever you do in life the end result is always the same professional, accurate, inclusive and entertaining. You have always been a class act and a great fellow policeman to work with. We had some awesome times together my friend. I will always hold you close as a true friend. Keep up the good work. Hope to see you this summer.
    Warm regards
    Herb Craig

  • Harold McNeill

    November 26, 2021 |

    Hi Dorthy, So glad you found those stories and, yes, they hold many fond memories. Thanks to social media and the blog, I’ve been able to get in touch with many friends from back in the day. Cheers, Harold

  • Harold McNeill

    November 26, 2021 |

    Well, well. Pleased to see your name pop up. I’m in regular contact via FB with many ‘kids’ from back in our HS days (Guy, Dawna, Shirley and others). Also, a lot of Cold Lake friends through FB. Cheers, Harold

  • Harold McNeill

    November 26, 2021 |

    Oh, that is many years back and glad you found the story. I don’t have any recall of others in my class other than the Murphy sisters on whose farm my Dad and Mom worked.

  • Harold McNeill

    November 26, 2021 |

    Pleased to hear from you Howie and trust all is going well. As with you, I have a couple of sad stories of times in my police career when I crossed paths with Ross Barrington Elworthy. Just haven’t had the time to write those stories.

  • Howie Siegel

    November 25, 2021 |

    My only fight at Pagliacci’s was a late Sunday night in 1980 (?) He ripped the towel machine off the bathroom wall which brought me running. He came after me, I grabbed a chair and cracked him on the head which split his skull and dropped him. I worried about the police finding him on the floor. I had just arrived from Lasqueti Island and wasn’t convinced the police were my friends. I dragged him out to Broad and Fort and left him on the sidewalk, called the cops. They picked him up and he never saw freedom again (as far as I know). I found out it was Ross Elworthy.