Becoming a Radio Operator

I went up to the first 6 weeks, you know the introduction part of things, the selection part of things, and at the end of the course you’re called in and they said, “ As a result of your aptitude test, whatever, whatever, you’re not going to be a pilot quite yet McAndrew you’re going to be a radio officer, how does that sit with you?” Well, you know, frankly I was disappointed. I don’t know how much really it had to do with any particular aptitudes or filling quotas, but anyway, off I went then to Clinton, Ontario. I decided I might as well give it a try and went into Clinton, Ontario where there were four or five courses of flight cadets as we were called under training. When I got to the senior course, I got called into the office with, I remember the other squadron leader Miller who said, “McAndrew we’ve been keeping a close eye on you,” and I thought oh my god, I guess this is where I get the chop because people got the chop all the way along and got sent home. And he said, “and we like what we see so we want to make you a cadet wing commander.” And that meant that I was literally the CO of all of the cadets during the last two months of the course. Now what was interesting with that was that I was also the youngest guy on the base in the flight cadet division you see. Because I had joined the air force a month after my eighteenth birthday and so by this time I was still eighteen; just a callow youth really. And every Thursday night I think it was we used to hold court and I would dish out punishment which would consist of people being confined to barracks or doing several turns on the parade square in full pack and all that sort of thing. During our senior course time we also did a lot of, you know flying out on exercises and things and one of them took us to Rivers, Manitoba and I remember yet walking down the road in Rivers, Manitoba and two officers from the United States Air Force passed us going the other way and as they came to us I looked at them and I saluted smartly and they saluted smartly and I thought that was sort of odd. But later on that night they were overheard in the mess saying, “My god you fellas have got some of the youngest wing commanders I’ve ever seen in my life!" They didn’t recognize that the white between the bars meant flight cadet, and he thought I was a full fledge wing commander.

Mr. McAndrew describes his disappointment at being selected as a radio operator instead of for pilot training. He goes on to discuss his training and selection as a Cadet Officer

John Allison ‘Jack’ McAndrew

John McAndrew was born in Dalhousie, New Brunswick on February 15, 1933. His family moved to Charlottetown, where he grew up. He decided to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force, hoping to become a pilot, but was selected to become a radio officer, flying in a converted Lancaster bomber on anti-submarine patrols over Canada’s Eastern waters. For him, peacetime service proved uneventful and he moved on to a successful career in broadcasting. At the time of his retirement Mr. McAndrew held the rank of Flying Officer.