Editing CFS Alert (section)

===Alert Wireless Station===
Alert, then in Canada's [[Northwest Territories]], was first settled April 9, 1950, when the first staff for the [[Joint Arctic Weather Station]] (JAWS) arrived and began construction. Since the beginning of the JAWS project, the [[Canadian Armed Forces|Canadian military]] had been interested in the establishment at Alert for several reasons: the JAWS facility extended Canadian sovereignty over a large uninhabited area which Canada claimed as its sovereign territory, and furthermore, its proximity to the [[Soviet Union]] made it of strategic importance. Alert is closer to [[Moscow]] (c. {{cvt|2500|mi|order=flip|disp=sqbr}}) than it is to the capital [[Ottawa]] (c. {{cvt|2580|mi|order=flip|disp=sqbr}}). Thus, the possibility of using the site for intercepting radio signals was deemed to warrant a military presence.

In 1956, the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (RCAF), which was expanding its presence throughout the high Arctic with the construction of the [[Distant Early Warning Line]] radar network, established a building uphill from the [[Transport Canada|Department of Transport]]'s JAWS station to house "High Arctic Long Range Communications Research", or [[signals intelligence]] operations.

In 1957, Alert Wireless Station was conceived as an intercept facility to be jointly staffed by personnel from the [[Royal Canadian Navy]] (RCN) and the RCAF. Five additional buildings were constructed: a [[mess]], three [[barracks]], and a power house and vehicle maintenance building, in addition to the existing operations building, built in 1956. The operations building housed the radio intercept and [[Cryptography|cryptographic]] equipment. On 1 September 1958 control of the station was transferred from the RCAF to the [[Canadian Army]] and it officially began operations.