As a Navigator

Heroes Remember

As a Navigator

Transcript

I think as a navigator, there is no time during a flight, I mean, of particular I mean a war flight, for a sort of slackness or a, a kind of a, I wouldn’t say relaxation, not that aspect, that you always have to be on the bit in the sense and you always, that the key word really in the navigation world, is accuracy; that you must never be careless, that you’re always on the job and the thing is whatever information you can get, you must get, even if you think you don’t need it, it’s a case of never letting anything go that could be of help in the sense whether it’s visual or astronomic or whether it’s experience. It’s a continuous responsibility which you have, almost anything to do with figures in terms of whether it’s direction or whether it’s calculation, it’s that demand that although it has to be done quickly and it has to be done accurately, and you have to have confidence. And you have to realize that everybody else in the air craft is relying on the fact that you’re gonna take them where you have to go and you’re going to take them back where they want to go.

Description

Mr. Watts states what it takes to be a navigator and the special characteristics one must have to accomplish the task.

Jack Watts

Jack Vincent Watts was born on November 10, 1920, and was raised in Hamilton, Ontario, where he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on July 2, 1940. He flew on Royal Air Force squadrons throughout his wartime service, serving with squadrons 10, 462, 109 and 105. He finished the war as a squadron leader and received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Bar. He retired as a brigadier-general in 1975. On his return to Canada after the war, he played in the Canadian Football League with the Hamilton Tigers and the Wildcats. He moved to Ottawa for his service career, and resided there with his war bride, Norma Zelia, formerly of Coventry, England.

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