Page 17 - March2020

RCASC, despite the urgings of the Resident Staff
From Pharmacy to Helicopters
by Jim Grant
I was born in Sexsmith Alberta and grew up on a farm in
the Peace River Country. As a child I could look out and
see 3 to 12 to 25 airplanes. P39s. A 26s, C 47s, B 17s,
flying overhead enroute to Russia, part of the massive
ferry program in being in 1944-45. In addition my heroes
of the day were local slightly older school friends, farm
workers, town employees who put down their pitch
forks, school books or whatever and went out to
Edmonton to join up. The next time we saw them was on
their embarkation leave and then watched the papers for
hopefully good news, but more often casualty reports of
that boy from the next farm, the elevator agent, the
bookkeeper. The war was real and the admiration for
men and women in uniform was instilled in my make up,
never to vanish to this day.
I was in cadets, then a Private in the Loyal Edmonton
Regt (Res), moved to Chilliwack and a Private in the
Westminster Regt (Res) My brother, John, a year
younger, was an avid air devotee from about 16 onwards
He took lessons at Chilliwack and received his private
pilot wings and continued to build up his hours while I
went on another route to the pilot world. Johnny joined
the RCAF in the winter of 1949 and after wings, went to
Transport Command and 426 Sqn. He was a Captain on
North Stars on the Korean Airlift before his 21st birthday.
After the airlift, he went on to CO Resolute for 6
months,then to fly Otters in Churchill and then to 412
Sqn as chief C-5 pilot. After early retirement Johnny went
to MOT as the Chief VIP pilot, on Jet Stars and Viscounts.
He retired to Kelowna to flog real estate to his friends
selling insurance etc .
I enviously watched the flying activities of brother John,
but elected to apprentice as a pharmacist, went to UBC
and initially joined the Reserve University Flight of the
RCAF. The summer camp was at Abbotsford, too close to
home, so I went across the armory floor and joined the
Canadian Officer Training Corps (COTC) and because of a
background of trucks and farm equipment opted for
Officer (RSO) to apply for the Medical Corps. I
went regular in 51 and served 30 full time years
of regular service.
In the last year at UBC I again applied for the RCAF
as aircrew, and went through the initial selection
process. The examining flight surgeon said I had a
color deficiency and would probably not pass
through the London stage as a pilot, but could be
a Radio Officer (RO) or a Navigator. No thanks, I
went back across the armory floor and went
regular RCASC.
I first served with 55 Tpt Coy in 27 Bde at
Hannover (Stonehenge Barracks) and on return to
Canada was seconded to Defence Research Board
(DRB), because of my chemical background, to
work at Suffield on flame warfare.(F/L Dave
Adamson was just leaving on promotion to S/L in
412 Sqn) 2 years later I was transferred to Camp
Borden to 1 Tpt Coy and 2 years later selected for
flight training and off to Canadian Joint Air
Training Centre (CJATC) Rivers Manitoba.
Dave Fromow was OC of the Light Aircraft School
(LAS) and our Flight Comd was Don Foster
followed by Fred Joyce. The Chief Flying Instructor
(CFI) was Nels Gesner RCAF. My instructor was
Tommy Musgrave. We started out with 7 and
finished with 4-Vern Taskey, Charlie Panet, Chuck
Burant and myself. Great times with some truly
remarkable characters in the CJATC expanded
family. We were pre-integration/unification and
there was a camaraderie and mutual admiration
for people of different backgrounds. Happy hour
at Rivers was a mixture of graduating jump school,
army pilots, T 33 fighter flight, Land Air warfare
courses, Air Supply school courses, 1 Airborne
Platoon, Box Car (C119) crews and some of the
greatest “mess characters” of my life. Great bar
talks with Roger Stone, Paddy Pyne, Frank Ledoux,
Scotty Shier, Russ Allan, Bill Jones, John Steele,
Frank Dunster (DFC and Olympic gold medal-
hockey)(Shoot fast, skate hard, and don’t tear
your sweater, we might need it for next year ) and
a host of others. We never bad mouthed any
group, but enjoyed the variety and circle of great
friends.