| Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer standing on the tarmat at the Argentia Naval Air Station. |
| Domenick Iacovelli took this view at Argentia Naval Air Station. From left: Navy R5D, the equivalent of the C-54 Douglas Skymaster, Northrup F-89 Scorpion, and a Navy TV-2 which was a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer. |
| Jerome Young captured this wedding on film that was taking place at the base chapel at McAndrew AFB. This location was across the street from the 1st. Comm. barracks. |
| 6610 M & S SQUADRON |
| Major V.J. Rhodes Commanding Officer October 1951 |
| To the west of the 1st Communications Construction Squadron barracks was the barracks of the 6610 M & S Squadron shown in the above photo. Their building number was 106. The above photograph and the one on the left are the courtesy of John Varallo who is in the second row from the top, the fifth airman from the right. John wrote that he was at McAndrew AFB from July, 1951 to December, 1952 and was classified as a 47131 Ground Power Mechanic. "Before your squadron came here the Army had your barracks next to ours, No. 108. I replaced the axles on the speeders a few times. The Army guys use to break them from time to time." John arrived in St. Johns on the transport ship the George W. Goethals and from there they went to Argentia by bus. "I remember we made a stop at a pub on the way and we had our first warm beer." The photo was taken by the ball field and the barracks on the left is the base school for the dependent kids. Posted Dec.19, 2006 John can be contacted at Cjvchurch@aol.com |
| John Varallo |
| The photograph on the left of Charles W. Mcilwain was sent to me by John Varallo. He was assigned to the 6610 while John was there. Charles sent me this reminiscence of his time there. "That photo John sent to you was taken in 1955 when I applied for recruiting duty. I was first assigned to Pepperrell AFB in 1949 and was transferred to McAndrew in 1950. I was vehicle maintenance mechanic and my maintenance officer was WOJG Perkins, my NCOIC was TSgt Vermillion. At that time Colonel Brewster was the base commander. My Sqdn Commander was Maj. Small who I ran into in 1955 at Camp Des Loges, France and by that time he had been promoted to Lt. Col. MSgt. Ryder was the first Sgt." "I recall being promoted to A/1C. at McAndrew and being issued my blue uniform when they first came out. Along about that time in 1950 the Korean conflict started and many of us were put on guard duty at night. President Truman froze all troop rotations and as a consequence my tour changed from 18 to 27 months. McAndrew was a very strict and disciplined place." "Our vehicles were all WW2 leftovers and required a lot of maintenance. Mr. |
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| Peyton was the fire chief and would tolerate nothing less than maintenance perfection on his fire trucks. I knew most all the vehicle maintenance personnel at Pepperrell and McAndrew at that time. McAndrew was very unique for an AFB due to having a dock for ocean going ships right there on the base. When I rotated in 1951 I caught the MSTS Sgt. Jonah E. Kelly ship from there to New York. McAndrew has many fond memories for me and I enjoyed my time there. Since that time I have learned many things about Newfoundland and the difficult times the people there have had to endure." Charles W. Mcilwain MSgt. USAF [Ret] Posted June 30, 2007 |
