The station opened in 1943 as a Royal Canadian Air Force Radio Detachment, its radar scanning the ocean approaches to Vancouver Island at a time when Japanese submarine activity along the west coast of North America was not hypothetical but documented. The location was remote by any standard, accessible only by sea or air, which was precisely the point. Its isolation made it a sentinel, positioned to detect threats that might bypass more populated areas. The base was equipped with its own airfield and protected by an RCAF squadron. In approximately 1942, the aerodrome was listed with three runways and a magnetic variation of 24.5 degrees east, a detail preserved in the RCAF's Pilots Handbook of Aerodromes and Seaplane Bases.

Several squadrons rotated through the station during the war years. No. 4 Squadron RCAF operated as an anti-submarine unit under Western Air Command from 1941 to 1945, patrolling the shipping lanes that connected British Columbia's ports to the broader Pacific theater. No. 132 Squadron, a fighter unit, was stationed at Tofino from 1943 to 1944 before being disbanded at Sea Island. No. 133 Squadron, another fighter unit under Western Air Command, also spent time at the base. These were not glamorous postings. The west coast of Vancouver Island offered fog, rain, dense forest, and the grinding tedium of watching radar screens for contacts that usually turned out to be fishing boats or weather.

The station was decommissioned in 1945 when the war ended, and the forest began reclaiming its edges. Then, in 1955, the station reopened as part of the Pinetree Line, the network of radar installations that stretched across Canada to detect Soviet bombers approaching from the north. Designated ADC ID C-36 and placed under NORAD control, RCAF Station Tofino resumed its vigil over the Pacific, this time watching for threats that would arrive at jet speed rather than by submarine. The Cold War reincarnation was brief. By January 10, 1958, the radar station was closed for good, rendered redundant by newer technology and shifting strategic priorities.

What remained was an airfield in one of the most scenically spectacular locations in British Columbia. The transition from military base to civilian airport was gradual but inevitable. Today, Tofino Airport serves the tourism economy that has transformed this once-isolated coast, connecting Tofino and Ucluelet to Vancouver and Victoria. The runways that once launched anti-submarine patrols now receive visitors who come to surf, hike the Wild Pacific Trail, and watch grey whales migrate past the headlands. The radar domes are gone, the squadron barracks dismantled. But the flat clearing in the forest, the runway orientation, and the simple fact that an airport exists in this remote location all trace back to the wartime decision that this stretch of coast was worth watching.