My Dad joined the RCAF in 1952 at the age of 17. He was trained as a radar operator and spent the first couple of years manning ADC stations in the North. After re-training as an Air Traffic Controller (1956) he was posted to 1(F) Wing in Marville France, this during the height of the Canadian Air Division (Sabre Days). He did two years overseas and came back to Canada for yet more re-training. The technology that they were working with in those days was evolving at a ridiculous rate and required constant upgrading for the operators. He did a couple of tours in the north after this as an ATC (Fort Nelson, and Churchill). During his posting at RCAF Churchill he met my Mom, who was working on the base as a teacher in the school where the military dependents got their education.
After this posting it was time for more schooling; Mom eventually joined him once her contract ran out in Churchill and he received another operational posting. This time it was Bagottville and sure enough? This is where I entered the picture. Summer of 1964. At this point, Mom became a "mom". We (my brother joined us in 1967) were there until the Spring of 1968, then the powers that be decided we were going to Goose Bay, Labrador.
This is really where my cognitive memory starts kicking in. What's for dinner? Fish (Herring/Smelts), three or four days a week. I would ride on the sled behind the good old "Sno-Trek" down to the bay on winter weekends and help Dad haul in as many as possible. We also caught lots of cod and these were VERY yummy indeed. Goose Bay was a very active Strategic Air Command (SAC, USAF) base during this period, with a Wing of tankers assigned and a constant rotation of period aircraft. MATS C-124's, C-131's, C-141's, C-97's; B-58's and B-52's, ADC F-101's, F-102's (ANG units by this time) and F-106's.
The RAF also had a presence on the "Canadian side". They had a detachment of Avro Vulcans (along with HP Victors as tanker support) based in their two hangars. They rotated their operational crews through Goose Bay to conduct low level strike training over the desolate frozen wastes in Northern Quebec and Labrador.
In the summer of 1969, Boeing's 747 prototype paid us a visit on it's way to the Paris Airshow. Still have the grainy black and white photos I took with my Kodak 126 buried somewhere in a box.
This exposure made me into a complete "airplane nut".
In the Spring of 1971 it was time to start packing again, this time we were going to Germany. We arrived in Baden-Soelingen (the runways in Lahr were being resurfaced at the time) on a shiny new CC-137 and as we swung around to head back on the taxiway I looked out on the 4 CF-104's sitting QRA with their USAF (nuclear) custodians, guns, and dogs.
This was a rather different world.
In the Spring of 1973, my Dad landed his 26,000th radar approach, which made him the top of the heap for GCA's in the Canadian Military. Two years later he hit 30,000 GCA's (bad weather landings, where the controller "talks" the pilot to the threshold of the runway); in the Canadian Military, this record will never be broken.
After 4 years in CFE we went back to Goose Bay. Dad was promoted to MWO and began the process of becoming an administrator instead of a "scope dope".
He still did shifts "in the hut" on this tour and continued to pile up "runs". Two of the most interesting in his log book are emergency diversions of SR-71's. One of these was a recovery in absolutely horrible weather with the aircraft barely controllable (or so he told me). Over the course of this tour, Dad also (an avid fisherman) took on the administration of the fly-in fishing camps. We spent a good deal of time flying in on the Otter float plane in the summer of 1976, catching epic Brookies and huge Northern Pike.
In 1977 it was time to hit the road again. Dad had spent two months "on course" in the Spring and was now qualified for the administration role that he had been groomed for over the last 3-4 years.
So?
Off to the most active airbase in the CAF, CYOD (Cold Lake).
Two years later he got his CWO and the ATCWO position, in charge of roughly 180 airmen and (in reality) the young Lieutenants and Captains who were the new radar operators and tower personnel.
He later did a stint as Base Warrant Officer (while still handling ATCWO concurrently) and had pretty much risen as high as one possibly could.
Without going to Winnipeg (Air Command HQ) that is...
And that's when he decided that he'd had enough of it all, I can't say as I blame him.
Despite the allure of being promoted to "Command CWO" he refused the numerous offers.
In his words?
"There's no way I am going to be a "bum boy" for some General".
In 1987 (at only 52y/o) he hit his magic 35 years (full/maximum pension) and pulled the plug on what had been one hell of a ride.
He and my Mom have been happily retired in Creston, BC ever since and have lived another entire lifetime since Dad retired.
All around the world and all that jazz.
As they said in the Seventies advertisements?
"There's no life like it"
If you pick up the ball and run with it that is.
Luck and nepotism had nothing to do with where Dad ended up, it was all hard work and a willingness to learn.
He's on the downward slope these days and it's going to shatter me when he's gone.
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