Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

KITTYHAWK DISCOVERY — Found after 70 years

Some time in 1942, a lone Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk bearing the 260 Squadron “HS” squadron code and the aircraft letter “B” settled down over a wide and remote expanse of North African sand desert called Al Wadi al Jadid…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

GLASGOW’S OWN — Honouring Harry Hannah

Harry Hannah, is a friend of mine. He was a Spitfire pilot flying for 602 City of Glasgow Squadron, one of the most vaunted and storied fighter squadrons of the Second World War. Some of the greatest and most highly decorated aces…

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Jacques Brunelle with Cal Taylor Jacques Brunelle with Cal Taylor

CLUB RUN TO MALTA

Leaning against the merchantman’s railing near the aft 4-inch gun emplacement, 23 year-old Sergeant Pilot Calvin Taylor and his travel mate were taking in the late spring ocean air and enjoying the sea voyage to Gibraltar…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

HERO — A Flying Tribute to a Missing Aviator

Vintage Wings of Canada's core program called In His Name dedicates each of the eighteen aircraft of the collection to a Canadian veteran, famous or otherwise, native or foreign born, who had an association with …

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Clarence Simonsen with Dave O'Malley Clarence Simonsen with Dave O'Malley

THE ART OF WAR

It began on 29 June 1962, as I stood before the main gates to the entrance of the Canadian Army's Currie Barracks, in Calgary, Alberta. To the guard, I uttered the simple words "I want to join the Canadian Army…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

PAYING IT FORWARD

When I was eleven years old, there existed a holiday in my hometown that, for me, rivaled Christmas or Halloween or Firecracker Day, which is what we called Victoria Day. This holiday, this special day…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

LUNCH AT THE EAGLE

There are places in this world that are imbued with a spiritual power beyond their utility. Most are grand. Westminster Abbey for instance contains the…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

MANUFACTURING VICTORY

Despite researching material over the past five years for the nearly three hundred stories, albums, features and missives of Vintage News, I am still in awe of the historical, emotional and visual matrix that is…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

CIRCLE OF SORROW

The Alberta landscape is one of undulating and verdant beauty in the spring. To the west, on the distant horizon, stands the saw-toothed, snow-capped permanence of…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

A NORTHERN LIGHT

The Canadian North is not for everyone. With its hard winters and boondocks spirit, it is a place that can easily break a soft, city-dwelling, smart-phone addicted metrosexual. It is however a place that pulls …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

WELCOME TO RCAF STATION PLAYGROUND, ONTARIO

When I was a child, we lived at the very edge of the city, the outermost ripple of the postwar suburban tract home malaise. We lived in a sweetly named, Mayberry-esque development called Elmvale Acres, a former farmer's hay field,…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

ROCK OF AGES — The Rocky Robillard Story

Vintage Wings of Canada dedicates all of its aircraft to famous and no-so-famous Canadian airmen whose lives are inextricably connected to the aircraft types which bear their dedication panels. One particular aircraft,…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

GHOSTS OF SASKATCHEWAN

The Second World War was a time of powerful stresses on nations, on ethnicities, on families, and on economies around the globe. Hundreds of thousands of families, in every corner of the world, would offer up, …

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Richard de Boer Richard de Boer

Warbird Relic Hunters of the Wild West

There are many things that make up the recipe for the heady cocktail that is powered or unpowered flight – history, technology, speed, brotherhood or perhaps the extreme test of human reflex …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

PORTRAIT OF A LEADER

At the start of November, Vintage Wings of Canada hosted the Third Annual Members Gala. It was the best yet, and Carolyn Leslie and her crew are to be commended for an exceptional soirée enjoyed by all…

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

BUSY FLYING AND KEEPING WARM

I hear voices. The voices of brave men. Gentle voices, creaking with age and weariness, soft and humble after a long life. I hear voices. The flinty voices of warriors at peace with themselves….

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

UP THE VALLEY OF REMEMBRANCE ON YELLOW WINGS

Remembrance Day is the one day Canadians and other nations set aside to remember, with some degree of sadness and plenty of dignity, the sacrifices of our men and women and their families in conflicts from …

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Dave O'Malley Dave O'Malley

GODSPEED CHRIS HADFIELD

On the afternoon of 19 December 2012, Chris Hadfield, member of the Board of Directors of Vintage Wings of Canada and one of its senior Squadron Leader Fern Villeneuve Hawk One F-86 Sabre pilots, will lift off the vast, sparse …

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