This web site is an effort to bring to the public an awareness of what so many did during the days of the cold war to protect the shores of the United States and the rest of the free world.  Thousands of young officers and men stood watch to prevent a surprise attack from the USSR, in radar sites along a line on the arctic circle called the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line that crossed Canada and Alaska, and on picket ships in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. On tracks that extended out over both of these great bodies of water; from the Aleutian Islands to Midway Island in the Pacific and from Argentia, New Foundland to the Azores in the Atlantic, the Navy flew WV-2s on a twenty- four hour, seven day a week schedule.  The east and west coasts were watched by the Air force in EC-121s (though these Navy and Air Force designations were different, the aircraft were the same).

We hope to bring to light the effort and sacrifice of the Navy crewmen of the WV-2s (known affectionately by the Navy crewmen as the "Willy Victor" ) who stood watch to let the free world rest easy.