Canadian Forces Base North Bay

Entrance sign at main gate of CFB North Bay.

Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also CFB North Bay, is an air force base located at the City of North Bay, Ontario, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) north of Toronto. The base is subordinate to 1 Canadian Air Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is the center for North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) operations in Canada, under the Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters, also in Winnipeg. (The 1 Canadian Air Division Commander commands the Canadian NORAD Region, as well.)

On 1 April 1993, all air bases in Canada were redesignated as wings; the base was renamed 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also 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.

The Air Force and North Bay, Before the Base

First Contact. North Bay's first experience with the air force -- and the airplane -- occurred on 9 October 1920 when a Canadian government Felixstowe F3 flying boat overflew North Bay on the third leg of history's first trans-Canada flight. The trans-Canada expedition lasted eleven days and required six airplanes; the third leg was flown non-stop from Ottawa to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with North Bay as a checkpoint. Coincident to the future air defence aspect of CFB North Bay, the F3's pilots were Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Leckie and Major Basil Hobbs. From 1915 to 1918, German Schuette-Lanz and Zeppelin airships bombed British cities during what is unofficially known as the "First Battle of Britain". Of twelve airship raiders shot down by British and Commonwealth flyers, three fell to Hobbs and Leckie. In fact Leckie, from Toronto, was the top airship hunter of the war; he engaged eight airships, shooting down two (if not for a jammed gun, he would have had three), including the commander of the German airship service.

Additionally, the twin-engine Felixstowe F3 flying boat was the direct descendant of the World War One Curtiss H12 and Felixstowe F2a aircraft employed by the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force as interceptors against the airships.

Most of North Bay had never seen an aircraft of any type before. Arrival of the F3 electrified the people, akin to the Space Shuttle appearing without warning over the city today. Leckie steered the aircraft to the downtown, and dropped a signal to be telegraphed to Ottawa, "Making a good 50 miles per hour". Then, with a wave to flabbergasted lunchtime on-lookers, he swung the aircraft over nearby Lake Nipissing onward to Sault Ste. Marie. The overflight lasted only a few minutes, yet its effects on the community were profound. Local politicians, business leaders and prominent citizens banded together to bring aviation to North Bay, in particular to push the Canadian government to establish an airport.

The Air Force and North Bay. From 1 January 1923 to 2 November 1936 the Department of National Defence (DND) oversaw all civil as well as military aviation in Canada. Canadian Air Force (in 1924, Royal Canadian Air Force) Squadron Leader John Henry Tudhope, a South African-born World War One fighter pilot, almost single-handedly laid out the network of aviation in Canada, investing nearly two decades in the exploration, reconnaissance and survey of the country for the building of aerodromes and establishment of air routes for a Trans-Canada Airway system. Considering that Canada, then, was nearly 1 1/2 times the size of Europe, and comprised mostly brute wilderness, Tudhope's undertaking was staggering.

In June 1933, the Department of National Defence set up a headquarters in North Bay to supervise construction of emergency landing fields for the portion of the Trans-Canada Airway system between Ottawa and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario. An eighteen-man unit operated out of the Dominion Rubber Company building, leased in downtown North Bay, which served as their headquarters, supply depot and living quarters. Labour came from the unemployed in local districts. Tudhope had deemed this region the toughest in the country; the landscape was as rugged and primal as any African jungle. Nevertheless, by July 1936 eight airfields had been successfully 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.)

Ironically, absent from the unit's work was an airport at North Bay. Tudhope had made frequent visits to North Bay and conducted feasibility studies, all positive towards construction of an airport. The problem was money. Neither the City of North Bay nor the Province of Ontario could afford such a project. Finally, on 21 March 1938, after years of diplomacy and prodding from North Bay municipal politicians, business leaders and prominent citizens in the community, the Canadian government announced it would build an airport, paid for entirely from federal funds.

On 30 September 1938, Squadron Leader Robert Dodds, seconded from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to the Department of Transport as Inspector of Airways and Airports in Canada, made the first official landing at the airport. The airport opened for business two months later, but bad weather delayed commencement of regular passenger service until May 1939.

World War Two

There is a common misconception that an RCAF base existed at North Bay during World War Two. The Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Air Force (RAF) operated units at the civilian airport, but RCAF Station North Bay was not created until 1951, six years after the war. In October 1939 Ottawa announced that North Bay was under consideration as a British Empire Air Training Plan site, due to its large airfield, distance from large urban centers and absence of power lines. The proposal was never realised. Instead, North Bay became a stopover for RCAF aircraft headed overseas, and, from 1942 to 1945, home to a seven-man RCAF detachment from No. 124 (Ferry) Squadron, responsible for servicing and maintenance of RCAF aircraft passing through North Bay en route to other parts of the country. Also in 1942, the RAF Training Command Trans-Atlantic Training Unit moved to North Bay from Dorval, Quebec. The Allies desperately needed aircraft for the war in Europe. A test flight of seven Hudson bombers in November 1940 proved that flying aircraft across the Atlantic from factories in North America was viable, and much faster than shipping the aircraft by sea. But trans-Atlantic flying then was as new and dangerous as spaceflight to the Moon is today. With nothing but the cold, gray ocean beneath them, the slightest error in piloting or navigation, or failure to react properly in an emergency, spelled disaster for ferry crews. Thus the Trans-Atlantic Training Unit ran three to four-week courses at North Bay teaching aircrew the techniques and procedures of long-range flying, and how to deal with in-flight problems and emergencies that might crop up. Ferry crews then went to Dorval for final training and a check ride; those who passed were given an aircraft to fly overseas. The RAF unit, re-named No. 313 Ferry Training Unit in February 1944, initially flew Hudson and B-25 Mitchell bombers, and a de Havilland Moth. Lancasters, Mosquitos and DC-3s were added in spring 1944. The scope of its North Bay operations required RAF Training Command to build a works and stores building, security guard house, salvage store, recreation building, hospital, hangars, general purpose building, fire station, fire protective system and coal compound at the airport. In October 1945, after the unit was disbanded, these facilities were given to the Canadian Department of Transport by the British government, free of charge.

RCAF Station North Bay

The base was constructed by the Royal Canadian Air Force and named RCAF Station North Bay in 1933. It was used as a logistics and construction coordination site for a series of RCAF bases being built across northern Ontario during the 1930s. During World War II it was used as a refueling and emergency diversion airbase for aircraft being ferried from Canada and the US to England. In particular it was one stop along the ferry route for Avro Lancaster bombers built at Victory Aircraft in Toronto, as well as US-built B-24 Liberators. The base closed with the ending of the war.

It was re-activated in 1951 as a training base. The runways were improved, and with the rise of the Cold War the base became a logistics center once again when construction started on the Pinetree Line, which ran quite close to the base. The runways were again extensively lengthened and the base became the primary air defense site for Toronto and southern Ontario. Typically two wings of night fighters and a single wing of day fighters were stationed there, originally the CF-100 Canuck/F-86 Sabre, and later the CF-101 Voodoo.

Retired CF-101 Voodoo on pedestal at the main gate to CFB North Bay.

With the formation of NORAD in the 1950s and the US's introduction of the SAGE system, CFB North Bay was selected as the Canadian counterpart to the US's Cheyenne Mountain control center. A SAGE installation was set up at the base starting in 1959, but unlike their US counterparts which were at ground level, in North Bay the entire standard three story installation was buried underground in what became known as "the hole". Later the base was also used as the control center for the Ontario portion of the two-site BOMARC missile system installed in the 1960s.

CFB North Bay

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 BOMARC missiles were decommissioned in 1973 and the SAGE installation followed in 1983. Parts of the computers system from CFB North Bay's SAGE installation ended up in the Computer History Museum in California. Following defence cutbacks in 1972, only a single flying unit was stationed at the airfield, the 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron, before it too was redeployed.

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 center with a new one on the surface. Construction of the new above ground command center (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 onboard 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.

CFB North Bay is also home to the 22 Wing Military Concert Band which has played across Canada and around the world. Every year, they perform a military tattoo; that is, a year-end ceremony honouring soldiers and support staff at Memorial Gardens, the local arena. They are considered the best volunteer military band in Canada.

While all regular-force flying units have moved away from the base, 22 Wing's now militarily dormant airfield still plays home to a cadet gliding operation, known as the Northern Ontario Gliding Centre.

References

22 Wing Heritage Officer, Canadian Force Base North Bay, Hornell Heights, Ontario, Canada P0H 1P0

See also

• North American Aerospace Defense Command

External links

• Department of National Defence Canada - CFB North Bay (22 Wing)