EXPERIMENTAL ARMY SIGNALS ESTABLISHMENT (EASE)
(In this article Carp will stand for all the various names used for CFS
Carp).
The main authors of this article are CWOs (Ret’d) Len Grummett (Ops) and
Paul Vaillancourt (Tech). I have just taken their notes and some info from an
article written by BGen Martineau - A History of Canadian Forces Communication
System (CFCS) and Canadian Forces Communication Command (CFCC) 1965-1994 - and
massaged them hopefully into a story of the most important milestone in the
history of Canadian Military Communications.
THE STORY:
In September 1959 under Civil Defence Order 1959, the Army was made
responsible for providing warning to the Public of attack and the radio-active
fallout resulting from nuclear explosions and for the operation of Emergency
Communications for the Government. This resulted in the need for an additional
900 RC SIGS personnel.
.
On 31 May 1960, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker announced a plan to provide
each Province with a centre from which a small core of Federal, Provincial
supported and manned by Army personnel could direct emergency operations within
the province, even in the presence of nuclear fall-out, the loss of
communications and possibly the destruction of the federal capital and some
provincial capitals. The army became responsible for emergency command, for
attack warning, for the prediction of fall-out patterns and for a number of
other important services.
Planning proceeded for a network of survivable, underground and hardened
shelters for the continuity of operations of the federal government and the
governments of each of the provinces. Planners ensured that adequate
communications capabilities with enough redundant landline telephones,
cryptography machines, teleprinters, transmitters, and receivers were
incorporated in the plans. The finalized plans for these federal government
shelters reflected compromise and consisted of one large underground building
and two widely dispersed antennae farms, one of which contained an underground
transmitter facility.
The Federal Emergency site chosen was at Carp, Ontario with Provincial
sites at Borden, Shilo, Penhold, Nanaimo, Valcartier and Debert.
State-of-the-art teletype and other associated communications equipment was
installed in the Provincial Sites. At the Federal Site at Carp, the first
computer operated message handling system called STRAD ( Signal Transmit Receive
And Distribution) system was installed to control the flow of traffic through
the network. The system provided a much improved service to the network users
until it was retired to make way for a more modern system.
The Experimental Army Signal Establishment or “EASE” became the cover name
for this facility, perhaps because there was an experimental Signals facility
located in nearby Shirley's Bay, just west of Ottawa. The name for the Carp
facility - the National Emergency Headquarters - was later changed to the
Central Emergency Government Headquarters or “CEGHQ”. The main operating centre
at Carp was called the Federal Warning Centre (FWC). It was headed by a LCol,
with five Majors on rotating shifts. Artillery Sgt as Weather and Map Plotter
and five rotating shifts (Communication Operators) in the operating centre with
a Sgt as the overall daytime Supervisor.
MESSAGE SWITCHING AUTOMATION
In the late 1950s, the British military had developed an automated message
switching capability called STRAD (Signal Transmit Receive And Distribution)
system and TARE (Telegraph Automatic Relay Equipment) that was based on ACP 127
procedures and which in essence automated the Tape Relay Centre (TRC) function.
Messages were received on STRAD, routed by TARE and transmitted by STRAD.
STRAD’s core capability was a magnetic drum storage device that recorded and
stored messages prior to their onward transmission.
STRAD - INCEPTION
On 22 Jun 1964, the Canadian Army Signal System activated a STRAD / TARE
system at EASE in Carp, Ontario. The footprint of the STRAD equipment occupied
204 square meters. Carp’s STRAD was implemented to handle 69 teletype circuits
and could be expanded to handle up to 90 circuits, operating at speeds of 60, 66
or 100 words per minute. The STRAD system was easily processing 9,000 messages
per day, well below its maximum capacity of up to 83,000 words per minute.
STRAD / TARE also saved much of the manpower required to operate the Tape Relay
Centre (TRC). This was the first automated message system in the Canadian
Forces, where a two or three person shift could do the operating work
previously done by an entire TRC shift of a Sergeant (shift supervisor) and
about five TRC operators – a significant manpower savings. Based on initial
success, there were discussions on implementing this STRAD / TARE system at
other TRCs.
STRAD - OPERATIONS
The Carp STRAD was a first generation computer designed for use with
digital communications systems. STRAD at Carp was the first installation of two
similar British systems. The British system was installed at Boddington, UK and
a similar system was installed in Australia. In Carp, the STRAD System was used
to terminate both HF and LF radio circuits and conventional land-line circuits
to all the Provincial Warning and Reporting Sites across Canada.
The installation of the STRAD at Carp and the installation of more modern
teletype equipment at the Nanaimo, Penhold, Shilo, Borden, Valcartier and Debert
Provincial sites revolutionized the narrative message handling for the Army and
other services across the nation. Concurrent with many of these happenings came
the unification of the Forces with the subsequent changes to the communication
system. In addition, STRAD was connected to a sister system in Boddington, UK
which provided an important portal for communications to Canadian Units deployed
to NATO Europe and other countries since the early 1950’s.
STRAD was versatile in that it was always available to accept the input of
messages and would then forward them immediately or if the system became too
congested, the STRAD controller could place incoming messages in overflow
storage, then retrieved and forwarded later. From 1964 until decommissioned in
1981, the STRAD system proved a highly reliable and secure message system.
Prior to STRAD, Canadian military communications consisted of Tape Relay
Centres (TRC) and Message Centres (later known as Communication Centres). They
were activated and operational throughout Canada and even with our Allies.
With the arrival of STRAD the whole concept of military communications
changed.
There were still Message Centres but the TRC was gone. No more chad tape
to step on and tear. No more an abundance of tape reels to store. The army now
had to change the rank structure for STRAD. Shift leaders were no longer Sgts
and Cpls but changed to WO1s.
I (Garry Dowd) personally remember working in the CommCen (as a Sgmn) and
seeing these Sam Brown Belted Soldiers reporting for their shift duty in STRAD .
Among the first of these were: WO1 Bud Mitchell, George Daunais, Harry Weins,
Jim Strain, and Gordon Sandall. The Ops WO1 at the time was WO1 Don Buchan. It
was definitely overkill because as time went by a Sgt/Mcpl was the shift
leader.
STRAD - TECHNICAL
In early 1962, 4 Sigs Techs were sent to Whitehall, North East side of
England to Standard Telephone and Cables (STC). They were S/Sgt’s John
Robertson, Rad Tech, and George Dixon, TE Tech, Sgt’s Donald Dutton, Tel Tech,
and Robert Trottier, TE Tech. The STRAD / TARE (Signal Transmitting Receiving
And Distribution) / (Telegraph Automatic Relay Equipment) system was a
transistorised fixed-program automatic message handling system developed by STC
in England.. The common logic part of the system was a fully duplicated and
cross wired to its identical twin. The messages received were stored on a
magnetic drum. Additional storage capacity was on an overflow, magnetic tape
system.
At this time there were five STRAD projects under assembly worldwide. They
were British Rail Crewe, (A) Royal Navy Mauritius (B), Royal Australian Navy
Cranberra (C) and Melbourne (D), and the Canadian Army (E). Later there were
more worldwide STRAD installations. The letter designation ‘E’ determined if a
modification was applicable to our particular site.
In 1961 a team of Technicans (Tel Techs plus 1 Rad Tech) was assembled and
hard at work in 1 Army Signal Squadron, in an old wartime “B” building in
downtown Ottawa. Teletype Equipment was being stripped down and overhauled by
the technicians for shipment to Carp.
Sgmn Paul Vaillancourt, the Rad Tech, worked for Sgt Don Dutton. They were
two future STRAD Maintainers. They made several trips out to Carp hauling
equipment and installing the equipment, wiring in the Tel Tech Workshop, Message
Centre, Crypto Centre and the interim Tape Relay Centre on the 3rd floor.
4 January 1962 Carp went operational. All the teletype equipment was in
place and the Primary TRC on the 3rd floor and the Message Centre on the 4th
floor were fully operational.
In the spring STRAD equipment started to arrive from England along with STC
personnel. Donald Davies, Project Leader and his staff of Roy Gillette, Chief
Engineer, Colin Buckton, Nigel Brook and Alan Brown came on site. Vic Paquette
was a Canadian Installer from Montreal. SSgt John Robertson was an inspector for
STC and checked all modifications we carried out. Sgt Don Dutton was
responsible for the military installation and modification team. This team
consisted of Sgmn Paul Vaillancourt, Ernie Krepps and Doug Hawley. Note at this
time Doug Hawley was a Tel Op. Much later after STRAD went operational in 1964
he remustered to TE Tech. He worked for the Canadian installer. Vaillancourt and
Krepps were the modifiers. Later Sgmn Bernie Goulet and Doug Nightingale joined
the installation group. Sgt Trottier joined us occasionally until STRAD went
operational in 1964 as the demands in Toll Test were great resulting in SSgt
Dixon never working in STRAD. All the other fore mentioned personnel later
became STRAD Maintainers.
In October 1962 Carp had its first lockup. The Cuban Missile Crisis had the
USA and its allies very concerned. It made little difference to STRAD personnel
except for not going home at night.
The cabinets carrying the ‘books’ of electronic equipment were approx 3.5
feet square by 7.5 feet or so tall and weighed 1,000 to 1,500 lbs each. This
equipment was unpacked in the tunnel and man handled onto a dolly and carefully
taken into the site for installation. This was a very difficult and physical
job. In total approx 80 cabinets were installed. One shipment arrived in 1963
where all the equipment had been damaged during shipment and a new order had to
be made and delivered. This resulted in close to 6 months delay in the
project.
Modifications to get the system working were coming in fast and furious. In
1963 Ernie, Paul and Bernie were put on double shifts on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday. We later, on our request, were changed to work till 2100 every weekday.
Then during the summer we also worked most weekends. Some new personnel were
brought in. After training they were given modifications to be carried out on
all the incoming and outgoing line books. They pinched so many wires they were
both relieved of the job and we had many hours of extra work to correct the
problems caused.
President Kennedy assassination in the fall of 1963 was about the only
thing to slow our modification work as we huddled around the radio in the main
lounge.
As said above, on the 22 June 1964, STRAD / TARE system went active. Sgt
Ross Creed sent the opening message proclaiming a new milestone in the history
of the Canadian Army Signal System. This activation was a full year ahead of any
of the other systems being installed
.
After the installation and acceptance was completed Nigel Brook stayed on
for a few years on contract. This was most beneficial as Nigel was the prime
fixer and fault finder on the STC team. He wrote 18 training test papers which
maintainers used to learn the system.
In 1964 on start up of STRAD the maintenance staff was:
Contractor Nigel Brook
Senior Maintainers - SSgt John Robertson, and Sgt’s Don Dutton and Robert
Trottier.
Junior Maintainers – Cpl’s Bernie Goulet, Ernie Krepps, Don Medicraft, Doug
Nightingale and Paul Vaillancourt, and Sgmn Doug Hawley
Senior Maintainers trained in the ‘60’s were WO2 Mike O’Brien, SSgt Ron
Burnley and Sgt’s Jim Lane, Gerry Cheverie and Jim Letourneau.
In 1970 CWO John Robertson, having returned to STRAD and now the boss, with
MWO Don Dutton ran a Senior Maintainers course. WO Don Medicraft returned to
STRAD and he along with WO Gord Leroux and Sgt Garry Vanstone was on the course.
They completed training as Senior Maintainer and then commenced weekday evening
shifts. When the Senior Maintainer covered a week of on call they also did the
evening shift. WO Paul Vaillancourt returned to STRAD in July 1971 and went on a
self study Senior Maintainer course.
The last training for Senior Maintainers was undertaken in 1978. MWO’s
Dutton, Medicraft and Vaillancourt rotated as instructors for Sgt McAra, MCpl’s
Brian Holden and Dave Chaplin.
MWO Don Dutton retired in 1979 after 18 years of continuous and dedicated
service working with STRAD. CWO John Robertson .followed retiring in
1980.
In the final 5 years of operation STRAD had a maximum of 15 hours of
downtime.
STRAD personnel on closure of the system were:
Senior Maintainers – MWO’s Don Medicraft and Paul Vaillancourt, Sgt Bob
McAra and MCpl Brian Holden; and
Junior Maintainers – Cpl’s Roger Cousins, Arnie Schmidt, Joe Smith, Jim
Stevens, Pte Ralph and Clement Ricard.
Attending the parade were several former CO’s, LCol’s McNinch and Ellis,
and Maj’s Green, Nottingham, Milne and Nightingale. Maj Green was the first CO
and had been at Carp when the first STRAD shipment was received. WO Ross Creed
who had sent the first message officially opening STRAD was also in
attendance.
Sgt Bob McAra of STRAD Maintenance and Sgt Jack Devenney of STRAD
Operations were given the task of coordinating the STRAD closure ceremonies.
These were held on 2 July 1981 with a parade and a fly past by Capt L. Koski of
414 Sqn in a T33 Shooting Star. MGen PJ Mitchell (CDLO) was the inspecting
officer and Maj Armstrong, CO of CFS Carp was the Parade Commander. WO Pat
Murphy sent the final message. After the parade, the STRAD equipment shut-down
was carried out by MWO's Medicraft and Vaillancourt with a number of
High-Ranking Comm Officers and STRAD Maintainers in attendance.
STRAD Personnel Ops and Techs were posted all across the country. There was
a two week delay for MWO Vaillancourt and Pte Ralph and Ricard. They stayed on
to dismantle the drums and tape decks to turn them in for destruction.
STRAD / TARE closed 17 years and 61 million messages later, when the
Strategic Automated Message Switching Operational Network or SAMSON – a
computerized network using modern computers – went active.
Submitted by Garry J. Dowd (CWO Ret’d)
