|
|
|
|
October 11, 2005 In anticipation of Remembrance Day, I thought I'd post a little piece written by my dad for his church's newsletter: Old Comrades and Casualties of War
By
Gary Hall When I was in my
mid-teens (late 1940’s), my older brother Lyle was in the Air Force. He would come home on leave and tell me all about the
exciting things he was doing, so, when I was seventeen, I left home and joined
the Air Force too. In the early days of my training I was
sent to the Institute of Aviation Medicine (I.A.M.) in Toronto. There they did all kinds of wonderful things to us, such as
spinning us around in a Gravitation Machine until we passed out or fed us
strange mixtures of food and then asked us how we liked them. While there, I met a Squadron Leader (S/L)
Smith*, (Major).
He was a doctor and a pilot. His
studies had been interrupted by the Second World War so he joined the Air Force
and became a pilot. He was with a
Pathfinder squadron. Pathfinder
squadrons were the bombers (DeHavilland
Mosquitoes) that flew over the targets and dropped flares to mark the
area for the main bomber squadron which followed.
This, of course, was a very dangerous job, as the enemy wanted to shoot
these Pathfinders down first. Can
you imagine this job night after night, month after month?
This, of course, took its toll on the lives of these young men who
survived. S/L Smith was a
very distinguished looking man in his uniform, with three rows of ribbons, pilot
wings, a Tour of Ops wing (45 missions) and a Pathfinder wing.
He was only in his early thirties when I knew him, yet his hair was snow
white and he never smiled. He was
always very serious. I often
wondered if this was because of his experiences in the War. For some reason
he liked me and took me on many flights with him.
Once he took me on a trip right across the country to Comox, BC, and I
was able to get home for a couple of days before the flight back. When I left the Air Force I lost track of him. This summer when
my wife, Betty, and I were in Manitoba on vacation, I looked up an old
Air Force friend living in Portage la Prairie.
He had stayed in the Air Force but is now retired. After reminiscing
about old times and old friends, I asked him:
“Do you remember Squadron Leader Smith?” and he replied, “Yes, he
became a Group Captain (Colonel) and the Commanding Officer at the I.A.M.” “That’s
great!” I said. “He was very
good to me.” “Well”, said
my friend, “Let’s face it, you were a bit wild in those days and he probably
thought you needed a little guidance. It
certainly was tragic the way he ended his life.” “Tragic?” I
asked. “Yes, after he
retired to Ottawa, he committed suicide. He
shot himself”, said my friend. I was stunned!
Here was this fine man who had been such an influence in my young life
and it was sad to hear that he had ended his life this way. Then I got to
thinking about S/L Smith’s own young life and I decided that although he died
some thirty years after the end of the Second World War, he was
nevertheless a Casualty of War. - Gary Hall (October, 2005) * Name has been changed out of respect for the family. Italics added by me. |
|
Send mail to
MoggyBC@telus.net with questions or comments about this web site.
|
