RCAF Station Parent

Last updated
RCAF Station Parent
Part of the Pinetree Line
Parent, Quebec, Canada
Canada Quebec location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
RCAF Station Parent
Coordinates 47°53′15″N74°40′09″W / 47.88741°N 74.66925°W / 47.88741; -74.66925
Code C-7
Site information
Controlled byRoyal Canadian Air Force ensign.svg  Royal Canadian Air Force
Condition Derelict
Site history
Built 1951 (1951)
Built byRoyal Canadian Air Force ensign.svg  Royal Canadian Air Force
In use 1953-1964
Garrison information
Garrison 14 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron

RCAF Station Parent was a Canadian early warning radar station and formed part of the Pinetree Line air defence network. Ground was broken in 1951, and by 1954 the station was operational. 14 Aircraft Control & Warning (AC&W) Squadron was the lodger unit operating the facility. In 1963 the station was moved to Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) operation; in 1964 it closed, as it was deemed redundant with more powerful radar stations coming online in the sector.

Pinetree Line

The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), over half were manned by United States Air Force personnel with the balance operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The line was the first coordinated system for early detection of a Soviet bomber attack on North America, but before the early 1950s radar technology quickly became outdated and the line was in full operation only for a short time.

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment networks.

The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. SAGE directed and controlled the NORAD response to a Soviet air attack, operating in this role from the late 1950s into the 1980s. Its enormous computers and huge displays remain a part of cold war lore, and a common prop in movies such as Dr. Strangelove and Colossus.

Contents

Present day

Nothing remains of the operational installation other than the foundations, guard rails, and paved parking lot at the top of the mountain. A communications antenna has been erected at the site of the original operations building. Some of the buildings at the domestic site below, where station personnel lived, are still inhabited. Supporting buildings such as the hospital, sewage treatment facility, and mess hall have long been demolished and removed; only their foundations remain.

See also

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References

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