Second Enlistment
Heroes Remember
Second Enlistment
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The 15 of February 1941, I signed on the dotted line. Dad didn't
say anything. Mother wasn't too happy, but I think they knew
that I was gonna go at sometime anyway you know because
I wanted to fly. And of course everybody wanted to be a pilot.
I started off as one but I wasn't good enough, I didn't make it.
I was with nine other chaps from PEI.
Some of them got killed, and a lot of them now
are deceased. But, I only waited a week before I was on a train
Toronto to basic training. They wanted to know I was
and how come, because they were waiting months some of them.
But we were all only eighteen, nineteen.
And I went to Toronto. I went there in February.
Left there in May. That was your, the training.
Then I went to Camp Borden as what we called a Grease Monkey.
We would grease and oil the aircraft in Borden and strap in the
student pilots, which were no older than us, and away they went.
That lasted until June. Then I went to what they called an
initial training school and what that was, was you had a map and
you had this, and it was in Victoriaville, Quebec.
That lasted two months I think, believe eight weeks,
ten weeks, something like that.
And the top ten in going through this course
they picked as pilots and the rest went as navigators. I was
picked as a pilot and we went to Chatham, New Brunswick. And I
got twelve hours in. Normally you had to solo in eight hours.
They gave you eight hours of dual flying,
then you're on your own. They gave me an extra four,
I don't know why. I suppose because one time
I'd land the airplane a hundred feet up and let it drop,
the next time I turn and grind it right into the ground. They
called it inconsistent flying, and it was a little inconsistent
flying, and it was a little inconsistent.
So my 19 year old instructor told the 18 year old student,
he said, "I'll save your neck, I'll wash you out."
I think he did. I think he did. Then we went to what was
called a wash out school that was in Trenton.
And, oh, they were all ages and they were navigators,
they were pilots and with my education,
they wanted me to be a navigator. I said "No."
The bottom had fallen out of my world
when I couldn't be a pilot, naturally.
And so I said, "I want to be a straight air gunner."
"You can't, you have too much education."
So I ended up being a radio operator,
a gunner and a radar operator in the aircraft.
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