Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also CFB North Bay, is an air force base located at the City of North Bay, Ontario about 350 km (220 mi) north of Toronto. The base is subordinate to 1 Canadian Air Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is the centre for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) operations in Canada, under the Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters, also in Winnipeg. It is also home to the 1 Air Force, Detachment 2 of the United States Air Force[1]
On 1 April 1993, all air bases in Canada were redesignated as wings; the base was renamed 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay. This is abbreviated as 22 Wing/CFB North Bay. Today, although this designation still stands, the base is often referred to simply as "22 Wing", and the Base Commander as the "Wing Commander".[2]
North Bay's air force base is the centre for the air defence of the entire country, and works in concert with the United States via NORAD for the air defence of Canada-U.S. portion of the North American continent. Activities are wide ranging, from identifying and monitoring all aircraft entering Canada from overseas, to guarding VIPs flying in the country (e.g., the Pope), to assisting aircraft suffering airborne emergencies, to aiding law enforcement versus smugglers, to participating in NORAD's Christmas Eve Tracking of Santa Claus for children. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s it took in UFO reports from across the country on behalf of the National Research Council of Canada, relaying the reports to a study at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, British Columbia. In 2000, it resumed UFO reporting, provided to an individual at the University of Manitoba. The history and particulars North Bay's air defence activities are described below.
Note: "air defence" refers strictly to aviation activities within the atmosphere of the Earth, such as those of helicopters and airplanes. "Aerospace defence" covers these activities as well as those in space, such as monitoring satellites and tracking space junk. In 2010 North Bay's air defence centre took the first steps towards transitioning to aerospace defence.
22 Wing/CFB North Bay has two unique properties among air bases in Canada. It is the only Canadian air base that does not have flying units (as of August 1992, when the last flying squadron departed), and the only air base in the country that does not have an airfield (base assets such as control tower, fuel depot and hangars were demolished or sold following the 1992 departure).
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North Bay's first contact with the air force took place on 9 October 1920, when a Canadian government Felixstowe F.3 flying boat overflew the (then) town during the first crossing of Canada by airplane. (North Bay was not incorporated as a city until 1925.) The trans-Canada expedition was an epic venture, lasting eleven days and requiring six airplanes. The third leg was flown non-stop from the Canadian capital, Ottawa, to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with North Bay as a checkpoint.[3] The F.3 was a descendant of the Felixstowe F.2a and Curtiss H-12 flying boats employed by the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force in the First World War as interceptors against German Zeppelin and Schuette-Lanz airships. In fact, the F.3's pilots were Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Leckie, of Toronto, and Major Basil Deacon Hobbs, of Sault Ste. Marie. During the war only 12 airships were shot down by British and Commonwealth flyers. Between them Hobbs and Leckie had three. 14 June 1917, Hobbs shot down German Naval Airship Division Zeppelin L 43. Leckie was the war's top airship hunter; he engaged eight Zeppelins, shot down two (L 22 and L 70, on 14 May 1917 and 5 August 1918), and killed the commander of the German airship fleet, Fregattenkapitan Peter Strasser. Strasser's loss, a national hero, devastated the German public, still mourning the death of Manfred von Richthofen. A third Zeppelin (L 65) escaped destruction when Leckie's gun jammed.[4][5]
Leckie's and Hobbs's encounter with North Bay was fleeting. They arrived without warning, approaching out of the east, catching residents unaware. Few had seen an airplane before; the effect was electrifying, akin to the Space Shuttle appearing suddenly over the city today. Leckie steered for the downtown. Over the Canadian Pacific Railway station he dropped a signal to be telegraphed to the Air Board in Ottawa, "Making a good 50 miles per hour", then with a wave to lunchtime onlookers the pilots swung their F.3 out over nearby Lake Nipissing, onwards to Sault Ste. Marie.[6]
The overflight planted interest in local politicians, businessmen and community leaders towards aviation, particularly the establishment of an air station at North Bay. (An "air station" was the term used in Canada in 1919-early 1920s for any land- or water-based aerodrome.) The landing of a Canadian government Curtiss HS-2L flying boat at North Bay, on Lake Nipissing, in the summer of 1921 for exploration and aerial survey work,[7] and on Lake Nipissing and Trout Lake (on the eastern periphery of North Bay) in 1922, for aerial survey and cargo and passenger transport,[8][9] amplified this interest. A campaign to the federal government for an aerodrome commenced.
On 1 January 1923 the Department of National Defence (DND) took over responsibility and control over military and (until 2 November 1936) civil aviation in Canada. Over the next decade-and-half Canadian Air Force (as of 1 April 1924, "Royal Canadian Air Force") Squadron Leader John Henry Tudhope, a South African-born First World War fighter pilot, almost single-handedly laid down the network of aviation in Canada, exploring and surveying the country for the construction of aerodromes and establishment of air routes for the Trans-Canada Airway system. Considering that Canada was nearly the size of Europe and mostly wilderness, Tudhope's undertaking was staggering. In 1930 S/L Tudhope received the McKee Trophy for his endeavours, the premier aviation award in Canada.[10]
In 1928 Tudhope stopped twice at North Bay, and again in 1931 and 1932.[10][11] Based on his exploration and survey work in the Northern Ontario region, in June 1933 DND set up a headquarters in North Bay to supervise construction of emergency landing fields for the Ottawa to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) portion of the Trans-Canada Airway system. An eighteen-man unit operated out of the Dominion Rubber Company building, leased on Oak Street, downtown North Bay, which served as their headquarters, supply depot and living quarters. Unemployed men in each local district were hired as labour. Despite the primal ruggedness of Northern Ontario, by July 1936, eight airfields had been hacked out of the wilderness, at Reay, Diver, Emsdale, South River, Ramore, Porquis Junction, Gilles Depot and Tudhope (named after the squadron leader), and the unit was disbanded. (Most of these airfields have since been abandoned to the wild.)[10] Ironically, although the nucleus of the operation, and recommended by S/L Tudhope in June 1936, North Bay was not considered as a site for an aerodrome.
The first air force aircraft to land at North Bay arrived 17 to 23 May 1930. Eight Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) flying boats stopped temporarily at Trout Lake during flights west. Two were en route to Winnipeg; two to Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan; four to Northern Saskatchewan.[12] This plus the landing field construction described above prompted local politicians, businessmen and community leaders to intensify their years-long campaign to the Canadian government for an airport. At issue was money—who would finance the project. On 21 March 1938, their perseverance paid off. The Canadian government approved expenditure of funds to build an airport at North Bay. The Province of Ontario and City of North Bay would provide the land. It would be a Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) facility; TCA was the country's government-operated air line (and forerunner of Air Canada).[11]
On 27 April 1938 work began. The first unofficial landing took place on 4 July 1938, in the midst of construction, by two area residents in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth.[13] The first official landing occurred 30 September 1938, by Squadron Leader Robert Dodds, RCAF, to inspect the work. A Royal Flying Corps fighter pilot during the First World War, and close associate of Squadron Leader Tudhope during the latter's exploration and survey of Canada, Dodds had been seconded by DND to the Department of Transport as Inspector of Airways and Aerodromes for the country.[10][14] On 28 November 1938 the long sought after airport was ready to receive aircraft; due to bad weather regular passenger service at the facility did not begin until May 1939.
Despite a common, popular misconception that Royal Canadian Air Force Station North Bay was formed during the Second World War, the air base didn't exist until 1951.
In October 1939, the Canadian government announced that North Bay's fledgling airport, open less than twelve months, was in contention as a British Empire Air Training Plan site. The BEATP (eventually renamed the "British Commonwealth Air Training Plan", or "BCATP") was the biggest international military aircrew training operation in history. There were more aircrew training schools in Britain, but the BCATP taught and evaluated 131,553 pilot, navigator, observer, wireless (radio) operator, air gunner, wireless air gunner and flight engineer recruits from around the world, plus 5,296 graduates from Royal Air Force (RAF) schools.[15][16]
North Bay's location presented an allure for air training. It was far from major built-up areas and its skies uncluttered by air traffic, altogether a reasonably safe arena for young aircrew hopefuls attempting to learn the tricky art of military flying. In 1940 a small glass 'greenhouse' was constructed atop the airport's administration building in anticipation of air traffic control, necessary to handle the sudden proliferation of airplanes.[17] But the government decided not to include North Bay in the training scheme.
The airport's sole service to the air force over the next two years was essentially like a roadside truckstop—providing fuel, rest and meals to aircrew flying across the country. By 1942 so many aircraft were stopping at North Bay that No. 124 Squadron, RCAF, set up a seven-man detachment at the airport. Under the command of a Flying Officer (today's rank, Lieutenant), two aeroengine mechanics, an electrician and an airframe mechanic re-fuelled, serviced and repaired the aircraft. A driver and vehicle mechanic saw to the detachment's staff car, aircraft towing tractor and 1,000-imperial-gallon (4,500 l; 1,200 US gal) fuel truck. The staff car was eventually replaced by a more practical "Truck, Panel, Delivery".[18][19]
The biggest impact on the airport during the war was delivered by the Royal Air Force (RAF). In November 1940 a grand, dangerous experiment had been conducted. Masses of new, desperately needed aircraft shipped from Canada and Newfoundland for the war effort in Britain were being lost in the Atlantic Ocean, their cargo vessels sunk by German U-boats. To reduce these losses an idea was proposed to ferry aircraft instead—fly them over the ocean. It was a breath-taking proposal. In 1940 transoceanic flying was raw and new. Aircrew had no navigation aids to steer by except the sun, moon and stars. Search and rescue beyond the coasts of North America, Ireland and Britain was nonexistent. Mechanical and electrical breakdowns in aircraft were common. In an emergency there was nowhere to land except the North Atlantic.
Nevertheless, on the evening of 10 November 1940, the experiment began—seven twin-engine Lockheed Hudson light bombers lifted off from Gander, Newfoundland en route for Britain. The odds were deemed so poor that only four of the bombers were expected to succeed. Yet the following morning, engines sucking their last gallons of fuel, all seven bombers arrived safely in Northern Ireland.[20]
Inspired, the Royal Air Force commenced large-scale ferrying of aircraft. A training school for ferry aircrews was set up at Dorval, Quebec, outside Montreal, but by 1942 the Dorval's airspace had become crowded with military aircraft. A new training site was set up at North Bay, taking advantage of the uncluttered skies and freedom from major built-up areas that had made the airport an ideal BEATP/BCATP candidate.[21]
On 1 June 1942, ground around the airport was cleared and tents set up for RAF Ferry Command's Trans-Atlantic Training Unit. Five Hudson bombers arrived shortly afterwards. Over the next three years, the unit—renamed No. 313 Ferry Training Unit in 1943—taught hundreds of aircrew, in three to four-week courses, the techniques and procedures of trans-Atlantic flying, and how to solve in-flight problems and emergencies. The size of the unit isn't known. However, although a formal air base hadn't been established, the RAF expanded the airport dramatically. A new double hangar was built (still in use today), as well as a Works and Stores Building (i.e., Supply), guard house, salvage store, recreation building, hospital, fire station and fire protective system, coal compound and general purpose building.[18]
The Canadian Department of Transport added water and power supply systems, plus provided clearing and grading for the hangars, aprons and roads.[18]
In 1943, three air traffic controllers were posted to the airport—the first ATC at North Bay—to coordinate airfield flying operations from the glass 'greenhouse' built atop the admin building in 1940.[22]
Nine more Hudsons joined the original five, along with two North American B-25 Mitchell bombers and a de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane. Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, de Havilland Mosquitos and Douglas Dakota transports were taken on in 1944.[18]
The RAF personnel melded seamlessly into North Bay. They loved the fresh wildness of the region, an exotic experience for many of the British. Area citizens welcomed them as part of the community. The Unit responded in kind, such as aiding blood donor drives, entering a team in the local softball league, and participated in shooting (won) and golf competitions (consolation prize).[23]
In September 1945, the war over, the RCAF detachment disbanded. No. 313 Ferry Training Unit followed suit in October. Their facilities were donated to the Canadian government. Mass flying finished, the air traffic controllers were posted out. North Bay's airport returned to its sleepy, low-key pre-war state, and so it would remain until birth of the air base in 1951.[18]
Despite the thousands of military flights transiting through North Bay and training for trans-oceanic flying, there were just eleven crashes, only one fatal. On 28 April 1945 a No. 313 Ferry Training Unit B-25 Mitchell crashed, killing pilots Flying Officer Leslie William Laurence Davies of England and Flight Sergeant William Gribbin of Scotland. Both men are buried in North Bay cemeteries.[24][25] This was also the first fatal crash of an aircraft, civilian or military, at North Bay's airport and in the North Bay area.
Royal Canadian Air Force Station North Bay was founded on 1 September 1951, part of the expansion of Canada's air defences in face of the rising threat of nuclear air attack from the Soviet Union.[26] A massive building campaign began in 1951 around the tiny airport, including construction of an additional, larger double hangar; a proper control tower; air traffic control radio and radar; and fuel, oil, lubricant and weapons facilities for military aircraft; plus improvements to the runways, taxiways and aprons. Across Airport Road, the main route to the airfield, Northern Ontario wilderness was cleared and the support infrastructure for the station built—headquarters, barracks, dining hall, messes, hospital, gym, motor pool, supply, firehall, RCAF police guardhouse, Protestant and Roman Catholic chapels, married quarters for air force families, and more. The majority of facilities left at the airfield when the RAF departed at the end of the Second World War were demolished and replaced.[18]
The base had the biggest impact on the community since the linking of railways with North Bay in the early 20th century. Construction, services and contracts for the base infused millions of dollars into the community, and by the end of November 1953 the RCAF station was the largest employer in the area: 1,018 military personnel plus over 160 civilians.[35] This status would continue for four decades, until the departure of the last flying squadron from North Bay in 1992 and subsequent downsizing of the air base. At its peak, the air base had a strength of about 2,200 military and civilian personnel.[36] (Base strength, as of June 2011, is 540 Regular Force, 77 Reserve Force, 34 United States Air Force and over 100 civilian personnel.)[37]
The air base's raison d'etre was (and still is) air defence. On 1 November 1951, two months after RCAF Station North Bay's official birth, No. 3 All-Weather (Fighter) Operational Training Unit was formed at the base. No. 3 AW(F)OTU was a state-of-the-art school teaching military flying, interception and fighter combat in all weather conditions, day or night—cutting edge techniques in 1951. Students came from as far away as New Zealand. The instructors were among the world's elite in air defence. The unit's second Officer Commanding (OC) was Wing Commander Edward Crew, Royal Air Force, recipient of two Distinguished Service Orders (DSO) and two Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFC) for his leadership, courage and daring in the Second World War, which included shooting down 21 V-1 "Flying Bombs". Crew was replaced in 1954 by another Englishman, Wing Commander Robert Braham. Serving in the RAF, Braham had received three DSOs, three DFCs, plus the Air Force Cross (AFC), and was the top nightfighter ace among British and Commonwealth pilots in the Second World War, credited with 29 1/2 'kills', one probable and six damaged enemy aircraft. Braham retired from the RAF in May 1952 and joined the RCAF. Crew and Braham also commanded RCAF Station North Bay for brief periods. No. 3 AW(F)OTU transferred to RCAF Station Cold Lake in mid-1955.[35]
Among No. 3 AW(F)OTU's instructors were the first Americans to serve at North Bay's air base; USAF Major J. Eiser and Captain B. Delosier, arriving 9 January 1952. Americans have continued to serve at North Bay in one military capacity or another into the 21st century.
As well as No. 3 AW(F)OTU, five interceptor squadrons served at North Bay during the period that the base was titled "RCAF Station North Bay". In succession, 430 Squadron (5 November 1951 to 27 September 1952), 445 Squadron (1 April to 31 August 1953), 419 Squadron (15 March 1954 to 1 August 1957), 433 Squadron (15 October 1955 to 1 August 1961) and 414 Squadron (1 August 1957 to 30 June 1964).
From September 1956 to September 1960 North Bay operated a CF-100 Staging Detachment at Lakehead Airport, Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario. CF-100 interceptors would deploy to the detachment to meet the air defence needs in that part of Canada. With removal of the CF-100 from Royal Canadian Air Force service, the unit became a TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) detachment; the unit was disbanded in early 1965. North Bay also operated a TACAN detachment at Kapuskasing, in Northern Ontario. "TACAN" is a radio navigation beacon that allows military aircrew to find their location and assist them in determining flight path, important aids over the vast Canadian landscape, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s when flight computers were rudimentary, and Global Positioning System (GPS) and other similar navigation-assistance systems did not exist.[18] In fact exact position of the Magnetic North Pole, benchmark for all land, sea and air compasses in the northern hemisphere, was not pinpointed until 1948 by 22 Wing (then a photographic flying unit, separate from and unrelated to North Bay).[27]
430 Squadron flew Canadair Sabre Mark II fighters, plus T-33s and propeller-driven North American Harvards for training. While at North Bay the squadron was commanded by James "Stocky" Edwards, Distinguished Flying Cross and bar, Distinguished Flying Medal, Mention in Dispatches (and, eventually, the Order of Canada). Edwards shot down 19 enemy aircraft in the Second World War; he was such a top-notch pilot that during the North African campaign, although a Flight Sergeant, he periodically led his unit, No. 260 Squadron, RAF, into battle. On one fighter sweep, his wingman was a United States Army Air Force lieutenant-colonel.[28]
445 Squadron was the first fighter squadron in the world armed with the Canadian-designed and built CF-100 interceptor. 419, 433 and 414 Squadrons flew CF-100 interceptors as well, at North Bay. In 1962 414 Squadron was re-armed with the CF-101 Voodoo.[18]
414 Squadron was the last fighter unit posted at North Bay. 131 Composite Unit operated from North Bay, 1 July 1962 to November 1967, a timeframe which included the base's transition from a Royal Canadian Air Force Station to a Canadian Forces Base (see below). The unit's T-33 Silver Star, C-45 Expeditor and Dakota aircraft were used for various transport duties, targets for interceptor training, and flying proficiency of Northern NORAD Region-assigned aircrew posted to North Bay.[29]
CFB North Bay's responsibility for the air defence of Canada, and, in concert with the United States, the air defence of the Canadian-U.S. portion of the North American continent has its roots in 6 Aircraft Control & Warning Unit (6 AC&WU), a tiny radar unit formed four months after the base opened.
From 4 February to 30 November 1952, outfitted with British Second World War-era Air Ministry Experimental System (AMES) 11C radar equipment, 6 AC&WU monitored the skies of Northern Ontario in the area of the RCAF station. This involved detecting aircraft entering the area; evaluating who they were and if they posed a threat; providing early warning to the air station of hostile, suspicious and unidentified aircraft; and guiding fighters by radio to intercept these aircraft. Unit strength comprised three officers and 32 Other Ranks, including 19 airwomen (air defence was a new occupation for women in the RCAF). The unit was originally housed in a small group of trucks; in March 1952 the unit moved into a temporary building constructed on the station, a more functional place of operation.
"Ground Controlled Interception", or "GCI", happens when air force personnel in a ground station, like a radar site or an air defence command and control centre, guide fighters to intercept an aircraft. Guidance is done by radio. The usual method is the ground controller and aircrew talk to each other. However, in the past—such as with the CF-101 Voodoo interceptor—the information could be transmitted to the fighter by datalink—by the press of a button instead of speaking, loosely similar to how WiFi sends data to computers today.
On 15 April 1952, 6 AC&WU carried out the first GCI at North Bay, a training session. The unit's ground controllers guided a No. 3 AW(F)OTU fighter against one of the operational training unit's C-45 Expeditors. From the success of this and subsequent training, on 15 May 1952, 6 Aircraft Control & Warning Unit began around-the-clock air defence operations in North Bay, working with 430 Squadron fighters in the defence of the area.
In December 1952, the unit was reformed as 33 Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron Detachment part of the new permanent air defence radar station at Falconbridge, Ontario, outside of Sudbury. The detachment remained at RCAF Station North Bay until the end of May 1953, when Falconbridge commenced ground-based air defence operations in the region.[30]
Ground Observer Corps From June 1953 to May 1960, RCAF Station North Bay supported Ground Observer Corps air defence units and facilities set up in downtown North Bay. On 1 October 1952, the RCAF established the Ground Observer Corps (GObC), a country-wide organization involved in defence of the nation against nuclear air attack. Headed by Air Defence Command, 50,000 civilian volunteers from every walk of life, from housewives to Jesuit priests, watched the skies with binoculars and reported aircraft sightings to filter centres. Some GObC volunteers set up sound-detection equipment, at their own cost, to search for the sound of aircraft engines at night and bad weather, when visual sightings were impossible. The filter centres, as their name implies, filtered the information received from the observers—aircraft determined to be hostile or suspicious, or which could not be unidentified, were reported to a radar station nearest the aircraft. The radar station then scrambled fighters from an air base, and carried out an interception of the target.
In May 1960 the Ground Observer Corps south of the 55th Parallel was disbanded, rendered obsolete by the NORAD SAGE system (described below), and the Distant Early Warning and Pinetree Line radar networks. The GObC north of the 55th Parallel continued until January 1964.
5 Ground Observer Corps Unit was established at 110 Main Street West, in the heart of the City of North Bay. 5 GObC Unit, commanded by an RCAF squadron leader, and manned by RCAF personnel as well as seven paid civilian employees, was responsible for the operation of Ground Observer Corps detachments and Observation Posts in Ontario at North Bay, Brockville, London and Peterborough, and at Winnipeg, Manitoba.
50 Ground Observer Corps Detachment and its filter centre were set up in an ex-movie theatre on the sixth and seventh floors of the Sibbett Building, a well-known North Bay landmark. Along with an RCAF Commanding Officer, a small RCAF staff and 1 or 2 paid civilians, a large number of unpaid civilian volunteers were employed at the detachment, hired via newspaper advertisements and recruiting drives. The detachment and filter centre operated round-the-clock, and trained extensively to fight a Soviet nuclear air attack. In May 1960 all of North Bay's GObC elements were disbanded[31]
During the Cold War, Canada was in an unenviable geographic position, situated directly between the Soviet Union and United States, the Cold War's primary adversaries. If the war turned 'hot', the country would become a major nuclear battleground—Soviet nuclear weapon-armed bombers would attack through Canadian airspace to destroy their American targets, while American interceptors would swarm the airspace to shoot them down.
In effect, Canada was by default the frontline for the air defence of the North American continent. On 12 September 1957, Canada and the United States formed the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD), an organization unifying the countries' air defences into a single, coordinated, fast-reacting network. The NORAD Agreement was officially signed by both nations on 12 May 1958. The name was altered to North American Aerospace Defence Command, 12 May 1981, to more accurately reflect the extent of command's responsibilities, in space over North America as well as in the Earth's atmosphere.
By virtue of Canada's frontline position, the Canadian air defence command and control centre would be the most important piece of the NORAD 'pie' -- its early warning of and reaction to a Soviet air attack, and survival in nuclear war were paramount for the survival of the U.S.-Canadian portion of the North American continent. Ergo planners opted to locate the centre underground to minimize the possibility of destruction by a nuclear attack, the only subterranean regional air defence command and control centre in NORAD. Following a survey of possible Canadian sites, North Bay was selected:
Construction of the Underground Complex (UGC) took four years, August 1959 to September 1963—1 1/2 years for excavation, 2 1/2 years to build and outfit the centre. Cost was $51,000,000, a third paid by Canada, two-thirds by the U.S.[32][33] Situated 60 storeys beneath the surface of the Earth (600 feet, 183 meters), the facility was specially designed to withstand a 4-megaton nuclear blast, 267 times more powerful than the bomb employed at Hiroshima.[34] The complex (it still exists) comprises two sections. The Main Installation is a three-storey, figure-eight shaped building inside a 430 foot long (131 meter), 230 foot wide (70.1 meter), 5.4 storey (54 feet, 16.5 meter) high cave. The Power Cavern, which provides life support and utility services to the complex, is a 401 foot long (122.23 meter), 50 foot wide (15.24 meter), 2.7 storey (27 foot, 8.23 meter) high chamber.
Access to the complex is via a 6,600 foot long (2,012 meter) North Tunnel from the air base, and a 3,150 foot long (960 meter) South Tunnel from the city. The tunnels meet; the idea was if a nuclear weapon struck the air base the blast would shoot down the North Tunnel and out the South Tunnel, minimizing blast damage to the complex and its structures. In fact, the three-storey Main Installation is mounted off the ground on specially designed pillars (not springs) to reduce seismic shock—1 January 2000, North Bay endured an earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter scale, yet occupants in the Main Installation did not feel a thing.[32]
Air defence operations officially began in the UGC on 1 October 1963, and continued around-the-clock, unabated for 43 years until October 2006. There was nothing like it in NORAD (the Cheyenne Mountain Complex did not officially open until 1966) or in Canada, and it attracted world-wide interest. Its opening was reported in newspapers throughout the United States;[18] it was the subject of numerous engineering publications;[33] and visitors included the commander of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force, commander of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia[35] In its heyday about 700 Canadian and American military personnel and civilian employees worked in the centre, in day jobs and shift work. As well as air defence offices and rooms, the Main Installation encompassed a barber shop, medical facility, gym, cafeteria, chaplain's office, and other amenities for personnel (particularly important since the complex was designed to seal up in time of war), command post, intelligence centre, briefing rooms, a telephone switching network large enough to handle a town of 30,000 people, and a national civil defence warning centre.
The Underground Complex is colloquially referred to as The Hole. Although officially titled the Control Centre/Defence Centre (CC/DC) Installation when it began air defence operations,[36] during its construction it was known as the SAGE Installation, North Bay,[37] a term still often used today. SAGE stands for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment. Canada and the United States combined are roughly twice the size of Europe—a Battle of Britain-style air defence network was too slow and unwieldy to protect such vast airspace in an age of jet aircraft and nuclear weapons. SAGE was a massive computer system linking the ground elements of Canadian and American air defence—e.g., command and control centres, radar sites, and headquarters—providing high speed detection of aircraft, assistance in their rapid identification, and, when required, aiding Ground Controlled Interception of unknown and suspicious aircraft. Also, the SAGE system enabled the different NORAD regions and NORAD headquarters to interact seamlessly with respect to air defence activities and crises. The details and history of the SAGE system are described elsewhere in Wikipedia, therefore are not repeated here.
The Underground Complex's SAGE computer equipment comprised a pair of computers, nicknamed 'Bonnie' and 'Clyde', plus Maintenance & Programming and Input & Output areas. 'Bonnie' and 'Clyde' combined weighed 275 tons (245,535 kilograms), encompassed 11,900 square feet of floor space (.273 acres, 1,105.5 square meters), and had a memory of about 256K. When the Maintenance & Programming and Input & Output areas are included, total floor space used was 18,810 sq ft (1,747.5 sq m).[37] The SAGE system was replaced in 1982-83 throughout NORAD with the Regional Operations Control Centre/Sector Operations Control Centre system (ROCC/SOCC), a faster, more versatile and much smaller system—North Bay's ROCC/SOCC components took up the floor space equal to a large house. Cost to convert systems in North Bay was $80,000,000.[38] The ROCC/SOCC system remained in use in North Bay until air defence moved out of the Underground Complex in October 2006.
Among its roles, North Bay's SAGE system was also linked to Canada's BOMARC nuclear air defence missiles (see below).
Three NORAD regions operated in the Underground Complex. The Northern NORAD Region (NNR) transferred into the UGC from RCAF Station St. Hubert, Montreal, in 1963, and began air defence operations from the complex. The complex was simultaneously home to a subordinate unit, Ottawa NORAD Sector. NNR's area of responsibility comprised the north, Atlantic and east-central airspace of Canada—along with the Ottawa NORAD Sector, its subordinate units were the Bangor NORAD Sector and Goose NORAD Sector. (In 1966, the sectors were re-designated, respectively, as the 41st, 36th and 37th NORAD Divisions.) American NORAD regions oversaw the rest of the country. In July 1969, NNR became the 22nd NORAD Region (22nd NR) during a revamping of the NORAD organization. Its area of responsibility remained unaltered. On 1 July 1983, with the switch from SAGE to the ROCC/SOCC systems, 22nd NR was officially replaced by the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR). CANR, which still exists, is responsible for the air defence of the entire country.[39]
North Bay's Underground Complex was also the command and control centre for two CIM-10 BOMARC surface-to-air missile squadrons. (Both "BOMARC" and "Bomarc" were used in official documents and the public lexicon, although the former was the original acronym, derived from Boeing" and Michigan Aerospace Research Center, the two entities that created the missile system. Examples of "BOMARC" usage are listed in the attached citations.[40][41])
28 December 1961 to 31 March 1972, 446 Surface-to-Air Missile Squadron operated five miles (8 kilometres) north of the city, at the site of a former RCAF radio station. 15 September 1962 to 1 September 1972, 447 Surface-to-Missile Squadron operated from a newly constructed site at La Macaza, Quebec, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northwest of Montreal. Each site was equipped with 29 BOMARC missiles; 28 for combat and a 29th for training purposes. The BOMARC was tipped with a 10-kiloton W-40 nuclear warhead (the bomb used at Hiroshima was 15 kilotons); in the event of a Soviet air attack some or all of the 56 missiles from the sites would be launched into the raids and decimate as many of the bombers as possible via detonation of their warheads.
Canadian BOMARCs were an international affair. The missiles were under Canadian control, the warheads controlled by the United States. At each BOMARC site an area was designated U.S. only, for the maintenance and storage of warheads. Permission was required from both governments for a launch. To activate a missile for launch, a Canadian and American officer at the BOMARC site, and a Canadian and American officer in the Underground Complex simultaneously turned keys. To launch, the Canadian and American officers in the UGC, at separate consoles, pressed a button at the same time. The missile would be guided by a controller at a SAGE console until 10 miles (16 kilometres) from its target(s), then the BOMARC's homing system would take over until detonation. No BOMARCs were launched in Canada; squadron personnel from North Bay and La Macaza fired missiles (non-nuclear warhead) at the Santa Rosa Island Test Facility, Florida.[18][39]
Due to the nuclear nature of the missiles all potential Bomarc personnel underwent Human Reliability Program tests to weed out those with "hidden idiosyncracies, repressions, emotional disturbances, psychosomatic traits and even latent homosexuality". Their "family, friends, past history, schooling, religion and travel experiences were also gone into".[42]
RCAF Station North Bay was formally changed to its present name, Canadian Forces Base North Bay or CFB North Bay on 1 April 1966 in advance of the unification of the RCAF, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Army to form the Canadian Forces.
The underground Direction Centre DC-22 facility closed in late 2006, moved to a new above-ground facility on the station. Parts of the computers system from CFB North Bay's SAGE installation ended up in the Computer History Museum in California. CFB North Bay remains Canada's primary NORAD site, with responsibility for monitoring the Canadian NORAD sector, namely the ADIZ surrounding Canada. Tools used by 22 Wing include the North Warning System which stretches across the Canadian Arctic, as well as coastal radars on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada (primarily used by Maritime Command, these radars reportedly have the dual ability to track small aircraft), and any Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft operated by the USAF or NATO in Canadian airspace. The personnel monitoring Canada's airspace are members of 21 Aerospace Control and Warning Squadron. Any unidentified or suspicious aircraft are tasked for interception by CF-18s operating out of CFB Bagotville and CFB Cold Lake or any one of dozens of forward operating bases in coastal and Arctic regions.
With the general scaling-back of air defences at the end of the Cold War, CFB North Bay was originally slated for closure and AIRCOM was rumoured to be planning to move 22 Wing's NORAD command centre to Winnipeg. The city of North Bay was worried about the loss of jobs and entered into a cost-sharing arrangement to service the base. Part of this arrangement is the proposal to replace the underground command centre with a new one on the surface. Construction of the new above ground command centre (dubbed the Above-Ground Complex or AGC during construction and testing) began in the spring of 2004 and was completed in the spring of 2006. NORAD operations moved above ground officially in the fall of 2006, and the AGC was officially named the "Sergeant David L. Pitcher Building" on 12 October 2006. The new complex is named after an airman who gave his life serving Canada on a NORAD mission while on exchange with the United States Air Force at Elmendorf AFB. Sgt. Pitcher was a crewmember on board an E-3 Sentry, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft (flight Yukla 27) that crashed on 22 September 1995, killing the entire 24 person crew.
The Under-Ground Complex (UGC), or "the hole", remains mothballed but can be returned to operation if conditions should warrant. The opening of the Pitcher Building and transfer of operations to above ground marks the first time the UGC has been un-manned in 43 years of 24/7 operations.
While all regular-force flying units have moved away from the base, 22 Wing's now militarily dormant airfield is still home to a cadet gliding operation, and the national summer courses of Aircraft Maintenance(AATC-AM) and Airport Operations (AATC-AO).
The runways are now used for civilian flights to North Bay/Jack Garland Airport.
CFB North Bay's Canadian Air Defence Sector Complex includes a classified Federal Heritage building 2005 on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings.[43]
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