Baden Remembered Guestbook

1955 --

Envoyé par: Don MacLeod
Date: Lundi, 28 Juin 2004, at 10:49 p.m.

Me Again.
I know I'm getting long in the tooth, but there must be some folks out there who served in 4 Wing in the 1955 era. I worked part time in the radio station. The new transmitter was installed and we went on air. Our CO (G/C Beverly Christmas)suddenly shut us down because we were "interfering" with the Baden-Baden and other area radio stations. This created a bit of a political windstorm and it was good PR on the G/C's part. Don't get me wrong, G/C Christmas was a good CO, officer and man.

On a sad note, do any of you recall when the aerobatic team (F-86s) went up to practice for an airshow in Italy and all four aircraft crashed?

On another occasion, the US military police arrested about 50 of our guys in Karlshure and area who were in American out-of-bounds establishments. F/L Doherty, OC of the Air Force Police was just a bit upset that the American did this to 'his boys'. He waited until a weekend or so later and sent out several 4x4s with AFP and Security Guards. We rounded up "a number" of American servicemen and brought them back to our guard house. The Americans were somewhat indignant. F/L Doherty diplomatically told the US military police boss to leave 'his boys' alone. It worked. We were instructed that it was better to bring our boys back to the barracks than throw them in the cells. There were, of course, some exceptions to the rule.

There was also the time I (and someone else) was on patrol around the base one night. We found a technical workshop unlocked. They serviced radar gun sights there. On instructions from the guard house, we removed all the equipment from the workshop, locked the door and transported a lot of the "stuff" from the workshop to one our our cells. Nothing was said. The next morning, the technical folks showed up for work to find the "stuff" missing. What followed might be described as "interesting" (I'm being polite). The boss of that shop notified F/L Doherty immediately. It was an interesting exchange, I'm sure.

Then there was the time a Zulu patrol was heading off. I believe, it was three or four F-86s took off and climbed to "whatever" altitude and they took turns flaming-out. Each made it back to the runway. If I recall correctly, "someone" had put "additives" in the fuel tanks.

The Guard House staff sometimes went out the back gate to ??Hugilshiem? to the tavern for libation and steaks.

We worked 9 days on and 3 days off. We didn't normally stick around the base during those three days. One of the first things "some of the guys" 'sometimes' did upon reporting to work was find a source of oxygen and have a few good "snorts" to bring our oxygen levels back to somewhere near normal.

I still have the pewter beer stein that was given to me by the guys when I was heading back to Canada onboard the "HOMERIC". That was a well-used (by Canadian military) passenger ship.

Memories....memories some great, some good, some not so good. On balance mostly very good.

Regards

Don MacLeod
Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia
Email nova.don@ns.sympatico.ca

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