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U.S. Naval Radio Station Galeta Island, Canal Zone 1953-1955
Images and narrative by Tony Spatafore

Please scroll-down. There are 20 photos on this
page. Click-on each small photo to enlarge.

ANTHONY J SPATAFORE
CTSN-CT3-CT2

U. S. NAVAL RADIO STATION GALETA ISLAND
CANAL ZONE
August 1953 - August 1955

The pictures on these seven pages represent the best of times at NAVRADSTA Galeta Island. We
had a great group of officers and men. Of the memories of Galeta, there are many. The best was
the arrival of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip on their honeymoon in August of 1954. I was
able to get the picture you see of their motorcade through Colon from the balcony of a building along the way.

The waters were so clear that you could see the decks of ships that were torpedoed by German
U-Boats during World War II.

In May of 1954, we received a flash to monitor 8364Khz, which was the Gibson Girl transmitter
distress frequency. A Navy super connie with 72 dependents and crew had left PAXRIVER NAS, MD
for Port Lyautey, Morocco. It was lost at sea somewhere off of Cape May, N.J. We had our receivers
calibrated with the LM freq meter and locked in on frequency. After three days nothing was heard.

Orders were received at the end of August 1955 for Winter Harbor, Maine. Never heard of it.

You were a great bunch of people and it was great knowing you.

Tony Spatafore





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