Search Results for: RAF

Mickey Heller was born November 3, 1921 in Toronto. Born into a large Jewish family, he grew up in the city’s Bathurst-Harbord neighbourhood against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the prevalent antisemitism of the time. When the war came, Mickey opted for the RCAF. He went through the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan

Hugh Patterson was born December 30, 1921 in Seneca Township, just outside Caledonia, Ontario.  He grew up on a farm:  there was plenty of food as Hugh remembers, but money was tight in the days of the Great Depression.  Hugh worked on the farm when he was young, but as he put it “milking those

Ernie Allen was born January 14, 1922 in Heaton Park, in Manchester, England.  His father served in the Royal Artillery during the Great War, and his mother worked in the cotton mills of Manchester.  Ernie went to school and did all the normal things a boy would do in 1930s Britain; when he completed school

Chad Bark was born July 16, 1924 in Toronto, Ontario.  He grew up against the backdrop of the 1930s, attending Oriole Park Public School and the University of Toronto Schools and playing and excelling at many sports.  When the war came, Chad joined the army hoping to get into the action:  he began in the

Jack Paley was born December 2, 1921 in a Yorkshire village.  His father was a veteran of the Great War, one who had seen action at the Somme and who had been a POW of the Germans.  Jack attended school until he was 14; he went to work at that time as a keymaker, and

Bunny Bergstein was born April 1, 1924 in Toronto.  His parents had emigrated to Canada in the period after the Great War, fleeing anti-Semitism in Lithuania and Galicia.  They raised their family in downtown Toronto, where Bunny attended school and busied himself with his friends, playing ball in the local playground.  By the time Canada

Bob Miller was born December 7, 1923 in New York state.  He grew up in Bellmore, Long Island, not too far from Jones Beach, an area that Bob remembers fondly.  The Great Depression impacted Bob and his three older sisters, but the family managed to get by, with everybody pitching in.  The family moved a

Tom Hennessy was born May 31, 1922 in Dublin, Ireland.  His father was transferred to Liverpool when Tom was quite young, and then the family returned to Ireland, relocating to the small town of Scarriff, in County Clare.  Tom attended a boarding school – Windermere – in northern England, and when he completed that he

Jeff Littell was born February 8, 1922 in Hundred, West Virginia.  He grew up on a farm in a large farm family – 12 children in total, where Jeff was the oldest.  Times were difficult for them, as the Great Depression began to intensify.  Jeff left school after Grade 8, and he worked to support

William (Bill) Norberg was born November 13, 1922 in Lemington, Wisconsin.  The circumstances in Bill’s early life were difficult; his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis when he was quite young, and when she was sent to a sanitarium Bill’s father was forced to break up the large family.  Bill and a brother were sent to

William (Bill) Hoy was born in Welland, Ontario on January 30, 1924.  His family had emigrated to Canada from Britain and settled in the Ottawa area, but by the time of Bill’s birth they had settled in Welland, where Bill’s father did his Great War service, guarding the Welland Canal.  Bill grew up against the

Richard Rohmer was born January 24, 1924 in Hamilton, Ontario.  His parents divorced when he was young, so Richard recalls growing up between the two households and dealing with the consequent difficulties.  He attended several schools in southwestern Ontario and by his teen years – coinciding with the start of the war – he was

Frank Cohn was born August 2, 1925 in Breslau, Germany.  Born into a Jewish family, Frank began to understand the realities of Nazism when he was a young boy:  an uncle was murdered by stormtroopers, and he saw violence in the streets outside his home.  He also compellingly remembers the day his Grade 2 teacher

John Bozek was born August 16, 1924 in Detroit, Michigan.  His parents had emigrated from Poland at the turn-of-the-century, and John was the youngest in a family of four siblings.  He grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but John remembers that his father always had a job, and that the family even

Ben Wright was born on July 25, 1946, and he was raised in Texas’s Big Bend country, where he and his siblings grew up in 1950s America.  Ben graduated high school in 1964, as American involvement in Vietnam was beginning to escalate.  Knowing the draft board would soon be after him, Ben opted for the

Ken Atkinson was born April 18, 1925 in Sunderland, England.  His father was a veteran of the Great War who enrolled his son in the Air Cadet Corps between the two wars, and Ken’s father remained part of the Home Guard once the Second World War began, watching the skies for signs of the Luftwaffe. 

Bradford Freeman was born in Mississippi on September 4, 1924.  He grew up on a farm, where the family was insulated from the worst effects of the Great Depression.  Brad remembers being at a neighbor’s house when the news about Pearl Harbor broke; he ran home to find his mother crying.  Still in high school,

Marc Spiridigliozzi was born May 11, 1948 in Altoona, Pennsylvania.  He grew up in a large family, in a largely rural area, and he remembers well the idyllic days of his boyhood, which he experienced against the backdrop of the 1950s-60s postwar boom.  His father was a member of the WW2 US Army National Guard;

Mary Cameron-Kelly was born January 5, 1962 in North Sydney, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  Her father had served in the CAF during the Korean War, and she made the decision to enlist herself after she completed high school.  Her air force career began when she became an airframe technician, and at this time Mary