The Flag in Shreds

All you can do is remember the funny things, you know, and Roland Mitchener, I was bringing him from Red Deer to Ottawa and I had to bring him to some big parade but he'd been out there on this thing so the chap roared out and they hand you the flag, you know, so you put the standard up and it's the astro, not the astrodome but the thing goes up for taking star shots and what have you. So anyway, slap this thing up, well in the hurry, so there's nothing on the jet prop. So I took right off and after a while I hear all this, “Bang, bang, bang.” What the Dickens is that, you know? So I thought, “Oh Jesus, we've left the damn flag up.” So you can't take it down so we got to Ottawa and pull it in, stripped in threads, and of course, afterwards we go down the stairs and handed it to the driver to put on the car, hand him this handful of shreds and the look on his face. I had to keep so straight a face, it was crazy.

Mr. Dungey shares a funny story about forgetting to take the flag down from top of aircraft during a dignitary flight and how it wound up in shreds.

George Dungey

George Dungey, the youngest of three children, was born in 1924 near Barrie, Ontario. His father, a First World War Veteran, was a laborer, machinist and semi-pro ballplayer. Before they enlisted, Mr. Dungey and his older brother operated a bakery. Following his brother, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was seventeen and a half, at Owen Sound. Mr. Dungey hoped to be bomber crew; following his Canadian training on Tiger Moths at Virden, Manitoba and Ansons at Souris, Manitoba, he received his pilot's wings. In England, he trained in Oxfords and Dakotas. It was as a Dakota pilot that Mr. Dungey was deployed to the Far East, where he joined the newly formed 435 Squadron at Impal, India. His squadron performed a number of valuable roles. It delivered supplies to British land forces in Burma, paradropped assault troops where needed, towed gliders to combat areas, and ferried the sick and wounded to safety. Mr. Dungey remained in the RCAF after the war, most notably serving in 412 Squadron, flying Canadian dignitaries to several different international destinations. After retiring from the RCAF, Mr. Dungey joined Transport Canada as a civil aviation inspector.