Description
Mr. Dungey shares his conversation with Minister of National Defense when the Arrow aircraft was no longer supported, a sad day for Canada
George Dungey
George Dungey, the youngest of three children, was born in 1924 near Barrie, Ontario. His father, a First World War Veteran, was a laborer, machinist and semi-pro ballplayer. Before they enlisted, Mr. Dungey and his older brother operated a bakery. Following his brother, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was seventeen and a half, at Owen Sound. Mr. Dungey hoped to be bomber crew; following his Canadian training on Tiger Moths at Virden, Manitoba and Ansons at Souris, Manitoba, he received his pilot's wings. In England, he trained in Oxfords and Dakotas. It was as a Dakota pilot that Mr. Dungey was deployed to the Far East, where he joined the newly formed 435 Squadron at Impal, India. His squadron performed a number of valuable roles. It delivered supplies to British land forces in Burma, paradropped assault troops where needed, towed gliders to combat areas, and ferried the sick and wounded to safety. Mr. Dungey remained in the RCAF after the war, most notably serving in 412 Squadron, flying Canadian dignitaries to several different international destinations. After retiring from the RCAF, Mr. Dungey joined Transport Canada as a civil aviation inspector.
Transcript
Then I went to 412 VIP Squadron which was very, very interesting. You took different heads of states and what have you and also there was one trip there like, I can’t remember the exact date and I can’t find it in my log book but it was honorable George Perks, he was Minister of National Defense then and they had that deal of the Arrow being phased out so I took him down to Washington, DCA, and it was a last moment sort of appeal, you know, help us or buy some of them or whatever it is they were having in mind but anyway, we came back that night and came back to see if everything was fine, car ready and all that sort of thing and he said, “Sit down.” So I had taken a lot of trips previous to this and he said, “Dungey, this is one of the saddest days for Canada.” I said, “Is that so? ” And he says, “Yeah, I’m afraid our Arrow is going to go and it’s very, very sad because we got the best aircraft in the world but he says we can’t get anyone to support us, our economy just won’t support it.” So I can always remember that trip. It was a bad day for us because we were a way, way, way ahead of everything in the world.