Flying Officer (Retired) Hugh Bone, RAFVR Flying Officer (Retired) Hugh Bone, RAFVR

A CLOSE SHAVE

A day or so after rejoining the squadron, a number of army officers were attached to us for ten days, while some of our fellows went on exchange to see how the army functioned….

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Anne Gafiuk Anne Gafiuk

ME AND MR. JONES

The first day I met Gordon face to face, I brought him a lemon meringue pie. Little did I know how much he liked pie. Over the past two years and dozens and dozens of interviews, driving from Calgary to High River…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

HONOURING BILL CARR — The Father of the Modern RCAF

As is our tradition, we raise a banner honouring a living veteran pilot of the Second World War. In past years, we have honoured men like Max Ward, Stocky Edwards and Bill McRae. This year, a year we celebrated leadership …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

OXBOXES OVER THE PRAIRIES

This past summer, while researching images of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan operations at No. 36 Service Flying Training School at Penhold, Alberta, I went to one of the greatest …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

BODY ENGLISH — The Science and the Art of the LSO

You are standing at the very edge of a steel cliff, high above the Indian Ocean. You look backwards across a hot steel deck shimmering in the 100ºF heat to the vast expanse of pale white-blue ocean….

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

WTF? — Captured Enemy Aircraft

Over the past seven years of researching aviation stories on the web, I have kept a folder on my laptop dedicated to images of Second World War aircraft that had been captured and had suffered the indignity of being painted …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THOSE BEAUTIFUL KIWI MOTHS

I have never been to New Zealand, that nation of two islands on the far side of my world, but I have this dreamlike image that runs in my head when that adventurous nation comes to mind….

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

Back in 1991, working at Ottawa’s National Capital Air Show, I welcomed a young Rockwell B-1B bomber pilot as he stepped down from the ladder of his “Bone” after the long flight from Ellsworth ….

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Tery Lebel Tery Lebel

A SNOWBIRD IN HELL

I was lucky enough to be part of The Snowbirds for the 05-06 seasons. I was Snowbird 10, team co-ordinator. During this time, and since, I have heard the term "life of the rock star" bandied about….

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

LAST CALL FOR LANCASTERS

As the Second World War wound down in Europe, the Allied powers, which had previously been focused on the destruction of Hitler’s Nazi-run Germany, began to think about the battle to come…

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Mori Juzo — Translated by Nick Vogue Mori Juzo — Translated by Nick Vogue

THE MIRACULOUS TORPEDO SQUADRON

Mori Juzo was a torpedo bomber pilot of the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of the aviators who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1973, Juzo wrote his autobiography…

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Michael Whitby Michael Whitby

NAVY BLUE FIGHTER PILOT — Episode Three

In the third and final episode of Navy Blue Fighter Pilot, Lieutenant Don Sheppard is now a blooded veteran, a respected and much-loved member of 1836 Squadron…

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Jonathan Falconer Jonathan Falconer

THE MEN WHO FELL TO EARTH

Throughout all of Continental Europe and the Soviet Union during the Second World War, nearly a quarter million aircraft were destroyed in combat, most falling from the skies to…

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Jonathan Falconer Jonathan Falconer

ONE WAY TICKET TO DUISBERG

When a Maximum Effort raid was called for by Bomber Command, upwards of 600 four-engined bomber crews could find themselves converging on the turning point…

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Michael Whitby Michael Whitby

NAVY BLUE FIGHTER PILOT – Episode One

Canadians like their fighter pilots. Perhaps more than any other figures in our military heritage they are a source of pride and admiration that even transcends generations…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THE MOTHER OF ALL DRONES

These days, when one thinks of drone aircraft, one conjures up an image of a sinister, beluga-shaped monster, whispering along at 20,000 feet on a moonless night over Iraq or Afghanistan. Inside its featureless head…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

THUNDER AND TRIUMPH

This past summer, something happened in the warbird world that has not happened in more than fifty years, something so creative, so daring and so anticipated, …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

OPERATION OVERLORD ESCORT

It’s been a few months since the 70th anniversary of D-Day. On that day, 70 years ago, Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen pulled off one of the most complicated…

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