| I give my thanks to John Whelan who gave me a good description of this view of Argentia Station and Argentia Naval Air Station: "Looked at your picture and here is the scoop, on the left of your picture is Blg.305 the USN Ship Repair facility...the red building is the railroad station, the original Argentia terminal was on the far right of your picture where the fleet docks were located....this one was built when the railway terminal was relocated for base construction....and it has artificial brick siding....that accounts for the no yellow paint. The small yellow building was a section crew shed...the long grey building with the black roof is the coastal freight shed. The building with the open bays is the USN Surface Operations Boat house where they kept the crash boats etc. The floating crane barge is on the extreme right. The boat in the foreground is the Bar Haven, to her stern is the Burin. I don't know what the vessel is on her inside bow. All the towns and villages along the coast were serviced by coastal boats like the Bar Haven and Burin, as you know there were no roads. The buildings in the background from left to right...Blg.5 with towers was part of Navy Comm. The next two housed the US Marine Corps Det....the next ones are dependent housing and the long low building with the two story annex is the USN Hospital and Dental facility." |
| View from McAndrew AFB across frozen Shag Pond. The two peaked hills on the right had bunkers inside them in case of an attack. To the left of the two hills and over the next hill is the base gate. Just above Shag Pond running parallel to the top is the railroad to St. Johns. Above that is the road to the base gate and St. Johns. |
| MV Lady Anderson at the McAndrew AFB dock. This vessel was used as a floating hospital ship that serviced coastal ports along the south coast of Newfoundland from about 1935 to the late 1960's. John Whelan E-mailed me to say that the vessel was one of two fast cruisers seized from New England rum-runners who were using them on the St Pierre run by the US Coast Guard. The Newfoundland government bought them for use by the customs service and several years later this one was converted to a hospital ship. They coordinated service with the local hospital in Placentia. |
| Across from our barracks was the NCO Club. Argentia Naval Air Station and Placentia Bay in the background. |
| It was a beautiful sunny day when W375 docked at the McAndrew AFB dock. |
| Joe Louie, our squadron mechanic, checking out one of the squadron trucks. |
| Ben Craft on the left with T/Sgt. "Red' Wilkerson headed back to the barracks after a days work in the pole yard. The rear of our barracks is on the right. |
| The roof of our barracks was a favorite spot for taking photographs of McAndrew and surrounding area. From left: Jerome Young, James Andrews and Lee Klein. Argentia Naval Air Station is in the back- ground. |
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