Bill Curnin writes:

I am writing about my service in the USAAF as a LORAN operator and technician from 1946 to 1949. The service included time in Hamlin Saskatchewan in a joint operation with the Canadian Army and the RCAF. The base was administered by the RCAF, the Canadian Army maintained the balloons to which our antenna was attached, and we operated and maintained the LORAN equipment. I am attaching a picture of the US personnel at Hamlin to this e-mail and I will send pictures of the base at Barter Island when it was a Loran base prior to its establishment as part of the DEWLINE.

I came upon your site while I was surfing the Internet in an attempt to recall my youth. How appropriate that they choose a Canada Goose for a logo I thought, for this closely mirrors my own experience with Loran.  I joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1946 and after Basic Training and attending Radar fundamental school in Boca Raton, Fla. a small group of us was sent to Groton Point, CT. to attend the USCG Loran School. We were such a small group that our C.O. was a corporal. I know that there was another small USAAF group before us and at least one more after us,

After brief Arctic training at Westover Field in Mass., we were all sent to Great Falls, Montana and from there we flew to Canada on Sept. 25.1947.  We were now assigned to the 122ND AIRWAYS AND AIR COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, 122D AACS LIAISON Unit with headquarters at the RCAF Station, Edmonton, Alberta. Actually, we were sent to five different stations. I know that Hamlin, Sask., where I went, was the Master Station. I think that the two Slaves were at Gimli, Man. and Dawson Creek BC. and monitors were at Edmonton and someplace else. We replaced people who were sent to the Arctic to man another set of Loran stations.

I can only speak of the operation of the station at Hamlin. It was a small RCAF base with a runway, one hanger, one building for living quarters and office space and one Quonset hut for most of the electronic equipment. Our patch read Project Muskcalf (see below).

Hamlin was near North Battleford. I think it was about 15 miles away but I am not really sure. We had to wear our uniforms on the base but were forbidden to wear any part of a uniform in town. Consequently we had all been issued civilian clothing while we were in New York. We were all amused by one aspect of that clothing issue. We were given almost everything: suits, shoes, hats, ties, handkerchiefs, even pajamas, slippers and a robe. Only one article of clothing was missing. We were not issued underwear -- no one was supposed to discover that we were wearing GI underwear.

The people of North Battleford were wonderful. The first time I went into town, someone said, "You must be one of the boys from Hamlin." That is how we thought of ourselves during our time there.

Someplace there exists, or at least there once existed, a history of the base at Hamlin. I was assigned to write it after I had been there a short time. I do not recall anything I wrote at that time late in the fall of 1947.

On June 7, 1948, some of us received orders to leave. My orders sent me to Barter Island, Alaska.  Others were sent to Skull Cliffs, Alaska. I do not remember where the other Loran stations in the Arctic were located and my copy of my orders mention only people sent to either Skull Cliff or Barter Island. However I do remember that there was at least one station in Northern Canada. The station at Barter Island was a monitor and our only equipment there was a receiver and a radio key to send corrections. I have found a lot of material on Barter Island on the web but I have not found any mention about a Loran Station there. Even in the history of the city of Kaktovik there is no mention of a military presence there before the DEW line. When we were there we thought that the only reasons for the station were for Loran and for a Weather Station.

Except for a furlough of a month around Christmas of 1948 back in North Battleford, I remained on Barter Island until Mar. 2, 1949. This ended my experience with Loran. The last few months of my enlistment were spent at Westover Field in Mass where I worked in a radar unit.

I am interested in finding any information available on these two loran networks, when they started and stopped operating, and any information you may have on the current location of the personnel who served at Hamlin, Barter Island or other Loran stations in these chains.

                                                             Bill Curnin - Bcurnin@aol.com