I was transferred to North Bay in 1952 and when the F86 Sabres arrived I joined 430 Squadron. 416, 421 and 430 Squadrons were selected to make up the air element at 2 (F) Wing, Grostenquin France. These squadrons assembled at Uplands in late September 1952 and eventually departed for France arriving at Grostenquin on 11 October 1952. I was a member of the ground crew and I believe there were three such crews. We flew in a North Star and it was set up so that there was always a crew in place to meet the Sabres and one to see them off. I was a Flight Sergeant in Telecom at the time. The first hop was to Goose Bay, then on to Bluie West in Greenland, Keflavik in Iceland, Ayer in Scotland and finally Grostenquin. It was a great experience, visiting Greenland and then out over the ice cap to Iceland. At Keflavik we had to make a crystal change in the VHF radio sets. The ARC-8 had only 8 channels so I carried a box of crystals to re channel for the various control agencies that we would need to communicate with. I only had one Telecom Tech with me and with the three squadrons we had 60 aircraft to reconfigure. Fortunately Keflavik was a USAF base and they were very helpful in providing a number of technicians to help us and the job was completed with no problem. The only holdup was in Iceland as we were grounded for ten days because of very high winds.
As you know, an advance party arrived at Grostenquin before we got there with the aircraft in October 1952. I believe it consisted of a small group made up of tradesmen from each of the three squadrons. They were flown over in a North Star and arrived over France late in the day and could not land at Grostenquin so the flew back to and spent a night in Paris. I understand that they talked about their night in Paris for many months. When we arrived the base was far from finished. Apparently the RCAF had committed to having 2 Wing in place by a certain date so went ahead with the plan. The hangars were usable and some barracks were nearly ready. We all ate in a common mess. Roads were muddy. The electrical system on the base was incomplete so power outages were frequent. During windy conditions there was a lot of sparking between the lines. There was no heat in the barracks so we used Herman Nelson heaters to pump some heat in through large flexible hoses. It was similar to what was used in the north to warm aircraft. The water system also was not complete so we had water barrels in each building. So we spent many nights in semi darkness and in the NCO area we often went to one room to just to shoot the breeze and consume the very finest scotch. For the first three months there was not much flying as it rained continually. This paints a pretty gloom picture and of course there was a lot of complaining and there were some airmen that had difficulty dealing with it. This was their first time far from home and for many, a family separation so we had some fairly serious personnel problems. On the whole though things went pretty good and in time the rather harsh conditions brought people together.
I did not have any great problem. I guess because of wartime experience I could accept the situation better than some. As there was no married accommodation there at that time my wife and two children went by ship, at our expense and we rented a house in Gllingham Kent near my wife's parents. So while I was in France I lived in barracks and about once a month I got over on the supply aircraft; a Bristol freighter, to spend a few days with my family. On Sunday night I usually had to take a channel ferry to Calais or Ostend and then an all night train trip to get back to base for Monday morning. The electronic trades were having difficulty passing trade exams so they sent me up to 3 Wing at Zweibrucken in Germany to run a refresher course. I was an instructor at Clinton for four years in the late forties so it was no great problem other than the fact that I had the course all day long in a classroom and some days seemed pretty long. While at Grostenquin I was promoted to WO2. In the summer of 1953 our squadron was moved to 3 Wing because the runway at Grostenquin had developed waves. It was an old seabed so repairs were necessary. While at 3 Wing I received a message to return to Canada for a commissioning board. I received the message on a Wednesday and I was expected in London Ontario the following Wednesday. Getting back down to Grostenquin to get cleared and then proceeding to England to collect my family and getting on the North Star out of North Luffenham is another story.