By Gary Watson | September 30, 2015 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 59 seconds.
The exhibit captures a time when the world teetered on the edge of nuclear war.
A new and unique military exhibit has opened in Calgary to educate visitors about the Cold War era, when the world teetered on the edge of nuclear war. Due to the actions of countries like Canada, the Cold War ended after about 45 years.
“We were prepared to go to war with nuclear weapons, if necessary,” said retired Col Don Matthews. “The Soviets knew that NATO was prepared to fight with every means available to ensure they did not advance beyond the Iron Curtain. As a result, the West held them at bay until the Berlin Wall was dismantled …. This is a story few Canadians under 50 remember and one that requires telling.”
In 2008, the Air Force Museum Society of Alberta completed the Air Force Museum of Alberta (AFMA) within the confines of The Military Museums complex to tell the history of the RCAF, from inception to the present day. But a new opportunity was about to surface. In early 2010, Gerry Morrison, the then-chairman of the Air Force Museum Society of Alberta and other society board members (including myself) started a discussion around creating a Cold War exhibit.
The story of the Cold War is one that requires telling.
The possibility of such an exhibit started to take shape when AFMA was offered a 2009 CF-188 airshow aircraft, provided it would be housed inside and maintained in the original paint scheme. The CF-188, number 118719, reached the end of its airframe life by the end of the 2009 airshow season, and the museum was given the opportunity to bring it to Calgary.
The society was also looking for a Canadair-built CF-104 and found one in the U.S. Starfighter number 12846 was the 146th of 200 built for the RCAF and first flew in 1962 at Cartierville, Que. The CF-104 was bought in June 2013 and trucked to Calgary, where a major restoration was carried out over the next 14 months.
A search was also being conducted for a Canadair-manufactured Sabre to complete the trio of Cold War aircraft. A suitable Sabre was located and bought in Reno, Nev., then trucked to Calgary in May 2014, where it was restored to its original RCAF markings and registration of 23338.
Sprung Instant Structures, a Calgary company specializing in tensioned membrane structures, was approached to construct two buildings similar to the NATO Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) used in Europe toward the end of the Cold War. In May 2014, construction began on the two Sprung structures.
Organizers sought a Canadair-built CF-104 and found one in the U.S.
The aircraft now had to be moved into the Sprung structures before placing permanent ends on the north sides. First was the CF-104 in August 2014, followed by the CF-18 in October, after it had been trucked down from Cold Lake, and the Sabre was last to be installed in May 2015.
Cold Lake also provided a cockpit from the original flight simulator and a legacy Martin Baker ejection seat.
AFMA tendered a request for proposals to design and build appropriate displays telling the Cold War story. Exhibitio Planning and Design of High River, Alta., was selected and an intense period of building displays, selecting anecdotes, writing narratives and first-person accounts followed.
Presenting all the accumulated information to the public culminated in a unique exhibit telling the Cold War story from a Canadian perspective which opened on Sept. 25, 2015, at The Military Museums in Calgary.
A fallout shelter from the exhibit.
