Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 46

Did You Know?
Arctic permafrost could not be excavated. Pile setting
involved boring into the permafrost, setting the piles
into the holes and then filling around them with sand
and water that would freeze and hold the pile in place.
An air space was allowed under the floor so heat from
the structure would not melt the permafrost.
I gradually realized that the figure was that of a Cree
Projects: Working with
Indian wearing black pants, shirt and top, with attached the United States
black cloth covering the back of his neck. Very much
relieved, I stepped out onto the trail to speak to him.
Strategic Air Command (SAC) Refuelling Base Program
What I failed to realize was that he hadn’t yet seen me,
SAC’s mission was to launch strategic aerial attacks
and my sudden appearance scared the hell out of him.
against an enemy, and its mere existence—which
Neither of us could understand the other’s language so
involved nuclear weaponry that would have been used
I tried to calm him by offering him a cigarette. Very
first by bomber aircraft and later by missiles—was
obviously, he wanted nothing to do with any jackass who
considered a strong deterrent to attacks against the
would jump out of the bushes just to give him a fright.
U.S. To maintain the deterrent factor, it was considered
essential to be able to support the aircraft en route from
When I was leaving Moosonee in 1962, one of the older
the bomber bases in the U.S. to their targets in the
Crees told me that from the time of the clearing operation
Soviet Union.
in 1959, they had called me “the man that the
mosquitoes bite.” How apt that was! So although the
In February 1957, the Canadian government authorized
bears didn’t get me, the mosquitoes did. Moosonee
the U.S. Air Force to build tanker facilities at Frobisher
Bowl, 1959—final score: Mosquitoes 1, Bears nil.
Bay (now Iqaluit), Churchill, Cold Lake and Namao—
but two issues delayed the program’s implementation:
Bob Givens joined DCL in 1959 as an ex-military
the first was the change in federal government; the
engineer. He retired in 1979 as Area Engineer with the
second was the U.S. State Department’s objection to
Ontario Regional Office in Toronto.
the Canadian demand that only Canadian contractors
be employed. In the end, the formal treaty specified
that the construction procedures would be as arranged
between the two countries; in private, however, the
Secretary of the Air Force wrote to the Minister of
Defence Production, agreeing that the Canadian condition
would be followed.
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BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA