Description
Mr. LeBlanc explains his duties and functions as weapons technician with the Sabre aircraft.
Henry LeBlanc
Mr. Joseph “Henry” LeBlanc was born in Moncton, New Brunswick in 1928. After obtaining his high school degree, Mr. LeBlanc became associated with the military. His first employment began in 1944 on a troop train between Montreal and Halifax where he sold beverages and sandwiches to the soldiers. In 1946, at age 17, Mr. LeBlanc joined the Navy as a cook on board the HMCS Haida. He married in 1948 and left the navy to join the air force thinking it would be easier on his family. In 1951, Mr. LeBlanc travelled to CFB Trenton, Ontario where he trained as a weapons technician. In 1955, he accepted his first posting overseas in Germany. Throughout his military career, Mr. LeBlanc served on several aircraft bases within Canada, returning to Germany in 1966. After retiring from the military, Mr. LeBlanc became quite involved in the local legion and was recognized with a 40 year membership medal. He also volunteered many hours with Scouts Canada.
Transcript
After 1955, I was posted to Germany and again my wife and children at that time came back to live with her parents here in Moncton. I spent one year, since you don’t bring your children, or if you didn’t bring your family with you, which there was no quarters available, you only stayed there one year. So I stayed at 4 Fighter Wing, CFB 4 Fighter Wing for one year. My work was on guns and ammunition. We were looking after Sabre aircraft at that time. There was eight machine guns on the Sabre and I used to look after the ammunition and that, help refuel sometimes, many different functions on it, do maintenance on those aircraft as well, and that’s most of my work done at 4 Wing.