CFB North Bay

Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also CFB North Bay, is a Canadian Forces Base located in North Bay, Ontario. It is operated by Air Command (AIRCOM) and its primary lodger is 22 Wing, thus the base is sometimes identified as 22 Wing North Bay.

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.

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.

ee also

* North American Aerospace Defense Command

External links

* [http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/22wing/about_us/index_e.asp Department of National Defence Canada - CFB North Bay (22 Wing)]