The "DEW" line - a distant early warning system designed to detect a Soviet missile attack during the Cold War - might appear to some an unremarkable section of a history book meant for reading by younger generations, but it was a tense reality lived for many months by local resident Donald Matthews.
"I guess I was just cut out for the military," said Matthews, 80, California. "I had really become bored with high school and wanted to get out and see a little of the world."
Raised in the Centertown area, Matthews' military journey began in 1952 with his enlistment in the Missouri National Guard, but the following year, he chose to continue his military service ... though along a slightly different path.
Capitivated by the technology-based educational opportunities offered by the Air Force, the young recruit was soon in a uniform and attending boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB), Texas.
From there, he traveled to Francis E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyo., where he received communications training and graduated in July 1954 as an "installer cableman."
The adventure he began seeking only months previous soon arrived when he was given orders for deployment to McAndrew AFB in New Foundland.
As Matthews explained, he was provided training as a cable splicer and attached to the 22nd Communications Construction Squadron under the Northeastern Air Command," which, he noted, required temporary assignments at locations in both New Foundland and Greenland.
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