Back in the Air Force

Heroes Remember

Back in the Air Force

Transcript

Interviewer: So you were able to come out of a war and go back and get more education? Yes. Interviewer: From there where did you go? Well, I got a degree in psychology from the University of Saskatchewan, and the head of our psych department was asked to look for some ex officer air crew who were majoring in psychology to go into, back into the regular air force to do personnel selection. And when I came home and told my wife that I had this offer, that sounded a whole lot better than looking at the back of my head for another couple of years while I went to UBC to get a masters in social work. Interviewer: I understand your wife at this time was going to school as well? No she'd graduated, she graduated a year before I started at college. Interviewer: So you were a late comer to the college world? Oh yes, but everybody else was, all my buddies were in the same boat. We had lots of company. Interviewer: So where did you go from there? Well, when I graduated, I went back in the air force, and I went down to Aylmer, Ontario, to the Airman's Manning Depot, they called it. And I was in the personnel selection unit, airmen, where we selected new recruits for all the different trades in the air force. We gave them a battery of psychological tests, interviewed them and then selected them for trades that were required. Interviewer: Quite a different responsibility in the air force field. Yeah, yeah, but it suited me because I wanted to be in some form of personnel work. And then I did that for four years and because my trade was pilot, I went back flying again. So I was on search and rescue from Winnipeg for three years. And then I went to Edmonton to 435 squadron, and flew box cars and transports, a lot of it in the arctic which I enjoyed very much. And we were on the first UN peacekeeping operation, where our squadron flew to India, or to Italy pardon me. And we flew from Italy to the canal zones, the Suez. But they sent far too many air planes, or far more than they needed, and so I was one of the early one's back to Canada and did my flying around Canada and in the Arctic as I said, re-supply and things like that. Interviewer: Do you feel your experience during your air force service with World War Two helped you? Oh yes, oh yes of course it did, because we just got, it was flying experience and flying experience is terribly important.

Description

After finishing school with a degree in psychology, Mr. Chase was asked to rejoin the air force . He then joined the Search and Rescue.

Bryce Chase

Mr. Chase was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan on June 6, 1923. He is the eldest son in a family of six children. He now resides in Calgary with his wife and family. Mr. Chase joined the service and became a pilot in the Air Force under the Wellington Bomber Command Squadron and he was responsible for carrying supplies and personnel in and out of Burma. He is presently a member of the Calgary chapter of the Burma Star Association. Mr. Chase returned to civilian life, enrolled in university, obtained his degree and now works in the field leadership and counselling in Adult Education.

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