Canadian Forces Station Val d'Or (CFS Val d'Or) was a

Canadian Forces Station A Canadian Forces base or CFB () is a military installation of the Canadian Armed Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces base, it must station one or more major units (e.g., army regiments, navy ships, air force wings). Minor i ...

Val-d'Or Val-d'Or ( , , ; meaning "Golden Valley" or "Valley of Gold") is a city in Quebec, Canada with a population of 32,752 inhabitants according to the 2021 Canadian census. The city is located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region near La Vérendrye ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

RCAF Station Val d'Or

The

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

established RCAF Station Val d'Or in 1954 as a fighter-interceptor base intended to protect

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

valley and

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

basin against

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

bomber aircraft. The airfield was topped with asphalt by the mid-1950s as RCAF Station Val d'Or became a key component in

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

. During the early 1960s, RCAF Station Val-d'Or was considered as the site for one of the Regional Emergency Government Headquarters (REGHQs), commonly known as a " Diefenbunker", but this facility was built at

CFB Valcartier 2nd Canadian Division Support Base Valcartier (2 CDSB Valcartier), formerly known as and commonly referred to as Canadian Forces Base Valcartier (CFB Valcartier), is a Canadian Forces base located in the municipality of Saint-Gabriel-de-Valc ...

instead. By 1964, the flying mission at RCAF Station Val-d'Or had changed to see all aircraft based at RCAF Station North Bay and

RCAF Station Bagotville Canadian Forces Base Bagotville , commonly referred to as CFB Bagotville, and also known as Bagotville Airport or Saguenay-Bagotville Airport, is a Canadian Forces base west of Bagotville in the city of Saguenay. Located in the centre of Quebe ...

but were deployed to the base in rotations; in essence, RCAF Station Val-d'Or was now a forward operating base. During the 1960s, RCAF Station Val-d'Or became home to numerous airborne

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission, fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion, fusion reactions (thermonuclear weap ...

as RCAF

CF-101 Voodoo The McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo was an all-weather interceptor aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Forces between 1961 and 1984. They were manufactured by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri for ...

interceptors were fitted with the

AIR-2 Genie The Douglas Aircraft Company, Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 (nuclear warhead), W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Cana ...

. The rise of the FLQ terrorist group during this period saw the Canadian military devise strategies to safeguard nuclear ordnance primarily stored at RCAF Station Val-d'Or against being seized by the group's members.Military feared FLQ would steal nuclear arms - Site historique du Front de libération du Québec [FLQ] - L'indépendance du Québec - La souveraineté du Québec
/ref>

CFS Val-d'Or

The 1968 merger of the Canadian Army, RCAF and Royal Canadian Navy saw RCAF Station Val-d'Or renamed to Canadian Forces Station Val-d'Or or CFS Val-d'Or; the term station was used since Val-d'Or did not host any major units such as a wing or squadrons. CFS Val-d'Or saw its mission gradually decrease during the 1970s and it was closed.

References

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Val-d'Or Buildings and structures in Abitibi-Témiscamingue Transport in Abitibi-Témiscamingue