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| The Navy in the 60s
HMCS INUVIK
The RCN had been established in the western Arctic since 1949 with facilities in Aklavik. During the early 1950s emphasis on northern development came to the forefront in the political minds of Canada. A need for national influence and presence in the north sent northern planners searching for a focal point; which would provide improved facilities for linking the remainder of Canada with the western Arctic by air and water. As well as allow for proper administration, education and medical care facilities. Aklavik's terrain considered by experts to be inadequate for the proposed new construction resulted in a search for a more appropriate location. This location was on the east channel of the Mackenzie River Delta, about 50 miles south of Mackenzie Bay in the NWT, 68 degrees north by 33 degrees west. The place would be called Inuvik (an Inuit word meaning "Place of Man".
Construction of the town commenced in July 1958 and with it so did the construction of NRS Inuvik.
NRS Inuvik became operational at 0001Z on the 20th of March 1961. The Inuvik station would later be commissioned on 10 Sep 1963 and be officially recognized as HMCS INUVIK. By 1964 there were 106 Radiomen Special, five officers and 30 civilians. The site would become an exciting posting for many military personnel until its closure in 1986.
CFS BERMUDA
Due to Bermuda's excellent geographical location, it was believed that a HFDF facility built on her soil could fill a critical gap in the expanding RCN-USN HFDF Atlantic network. However the Bermuda government had reservations on allowing the Americans who were already occupying Bermuda land to acquire more. Instead, after many negotiations, the Bermuda government gave the necessary permission for the Royal Canadian Navy to establish a receiving site located at Daniel's Head Somerset, with a transmitter at Ireland Island Bermuda. Both locations being part of a British Royal Navy Wireless Station that operated between 1939-49.
The site was activated on a one year trial basis as of the 3 July 1963. The initial complement comprised of one officer, and fourteen men, unaccompanied; with the USN providing accommodation. Over the course of less than a year, the site proved to be a success, thus becoming a permanent station on 1 April 1964.
Within the next three years the site underwent a face-lift with erecting of permanent antenna pads and other necessary construction required in making it a permanent site. In the early days, Gloucester was responsible for drafting people who were coming to Bermuda.
Men would be made dental fit, provided with NRS cap tallies, transport warrants, travelling route orders, government bills of lading for 160 pounds of surface luggage, kit and all the necessary inoculations.
By the end of 1963 the HFDF Atlantic network in which the RCN was participating with USN had expanded. RCN now had five sites to the USN's ten. The RCN stations were: Frobisher, Coverdale, Gander, Gloucester and Bermuda. This Atlantic HFDF was primarily providing support to the CANUS and NATO anti-sub warfare operations and Search and Rescue (SAR) activity.
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