From Air Gunner to Bomber Pilot

Heroes Remember

From Air Gunner to Bomber Pilot

Transcript

I convinced the recruitment officer to have a look at air crew and as a gunner. So he seemed to figure that that was not too bad. My schooling was just adequate for gunner so he said, “Well, just a moment I got another gentleman out here that I’m half and half what category to put him into so we’ll give you a categorization test.” So this test was straight mental arithmetic you didn’t have too much time or that to sit and figure it out. And of the 60 questions on the first, I took it twice actually, so I had something like 46 right out of the 60. The other gentleman had a senior matriculation and had been working in railway machine yard for quite a while and he ended up with about eighteen. So he came down a notch and I went up a notch and we both were recruited as wireless air gunners. So then here they have all these people who are partially trained so they gave us another categorization test. Well, my luck being what it was, it was the same test. So my memory was pretty good so the second time I got something like 56 or 57 out of 60. So up I went again so I ended up in general air crew rather than as gunner or wireless air gunner. I went in then I made it through for the rest of it, and that was actually how I ended up being a pilot, it wasn’t my intention when I went into the recruiting depot.

Description

Mr. Campbell discusses how a lucky break on a mathematics re-test allowed him to be streamed into pilot training.

John Campbell

John Campbell was born in October, 1923 in Coleman, Alberta. He was the younger of two brothers. His father was a coal miner and Mr. Campbell credits the mine’s support of the local school for his good education. Following the death of both his parents, he went into the mine. Because of the diverse ethnic mix in Coleman, the onset of war saw many miners return home to serve in their respective forces. He enlisted in 1942, joining the Air Force and becoming a bomber pilot. He finished his full complement of thirty-two missions with the same crew. After the war he remained in the Air Force and was a first responder on the DEW Line.

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