Additional American Pilots in the RCAF
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:07 am
George, while looking for other information for you, I came across more American’s in the RCAF who were at No 9 Service Flying Training School, Centralia, Ontario.
Also note in this story he mentions another American, John Birky (which I’ve posted info on a later post on this thread)
ED HAWKES - RCAF AMERICAN VOLUNTEER
Jack Pequegnat, my elementary instructor at Goderich, said if I had not done any previous flying I wouldn’t have to unlearn the bad habits I had picked up. He sure was a good guy, patient and very thorough in explaining and demonstrating what I was required. I remember the food at Goderich. It was out of this world. There was a great big French cook. He made fresh tomato soup. I haven’t eaten anything like it since. While training at No. 9 SFTS Centralia fellow American John Birky was killed. We were all quite startled and rather sobered by it in the fact that it could happen. Up to that time it was fun and games and we were having a good time and these are pretty nice aircraft to fly. I don’t think that death ever crossed anybody’s mind – and then bang, to have him go like that. We didn’t have too much time to think about John Birky’s loss. They really had the ground school laid out. If you weren’t in ground school you were flying. There really wasn’t time for much of anything. There was always some reading to do at night. You never seemed to be totally caught up. It was mostly just plain hard work. When I got my wings, I figured I was a number one hotshot! I sort of didn’t believe it for a while – it was just too good to be true. The biggest surprise was when I got a commission on top of that. I thought it was pretty good for a small town boy. I had a notion that Chuck Folsom, my American instructor at Centralia had been at Annapolis and had been asked to leave for raising hell. He later confirmed this. Chuck was called by his contemporaries, ‘Big Chief’. I think his method of instructing developed a close relationship between us. We’d take off for example, and he’d say, “Now this is the way to do it – you get lined up right down the middle of the runway and cage the directional gyro and set it to zero or set it to the heading – set it on ninety if you were going east or eighteen if you were going south – whatever it happened to be. This is the way you do it and this is the way you want to open the throttle – he’d do the whole thing and make a circuit and downwind bash down some flap and so on. He’d do the whole thing and then he’d say, “You go ahead and have a ‘go. I would and did fairly well at it. I think we got along. His method of teaching was don’t get excited and take it easy- nothing drastic is going to happen. It was very reassuring, really, because he certainly was the perfect personification of confidence if nothing else. He certainly could fly and fly extremely well. I think it was the non-screaming low key approach. So many other guys had instructors who would almost get hysterical. They’d get so excited if you did something the least bit wrong. I think it was pretty easy on that score simply because he was so relaxed and it just kind of “transmitted” - easy going and calm but absolutely in control of everything. We used to twit each other on account of our accents. He used to call me ‘Ayid’ for Ed. Being from Kentucky, he really did have a southern drawl. I felt as though I was treated like a Canadian, and I don’t think there is anything I can add to that. I don’t really think that there was any distinct American-Canadian association. In fact, I don’t recall that the subject of who you were or where you came from came up very often. I don’t know how it felt to wear a U.S.A. shoulder flash because mine said Canada. Without doubt, it was the experience of a lifetime. I'm glad I went. The only regret is not finishing a tour but that's pretty small stuff compared to the reason; the end of the war. If only I had gone sooner ..., if, if if!!”
Also note in this story he mentions another American, John Birky (which I’ve posted info on a later post on this thread)
ED HAWKES - RCAF AMERICAN VOLUNTEER
Jack Pequegnat, my elementary instructor at Goderich, said if I had not done any previous flying I wouldn’t have to unlearn the bad habits I had picked up. He sure was a good guy, patient and very thorough in explaining and demonstrating what I was required. I remember the food at Goderich. It was out of this world. There was a great big French cook. He made fresh tomato soup. I haven’t eaten anything like it since. While training at No. 9 SFTS Centralia fellow American John Birky was killed. We were all quite startled and rather sobered by it in the fact that it could happen. Up to that time it was fun and games and we were having a good time and these are pretty nice aircraft to fly. I don’t think that death ever crossed anybody’s mind – and then bang, to have him go like that. We didn’t have too much time to think about John Birky’s loss. They really had the ground school laid out. If you weren’t in ground school you were flying. There really wasn’t time for much of anything. There was always some reading to do at night. You never seemed to be totally caught up. It was mostly just plain hard work. When I got my wings, I figured I was a number one hotshot! I sort of didn’t believe it for a while – it was just too good to be true. The biggest surprise was when I got a commission on top of that. I thought it was pretty good for a small town boy. I had a notion that Chuck Folsom, my American instructor at Centralia had been at Annapolis and had been asked to leave for raising hell. He later confirmed this. Chuck was called by his contemporaries, ‘Big Chief’. I think his method of instructing developed a close relationship between us. We’d take off for example, and he’d say, “Now this is the way to do it – you get lined up right down the middle of the runway and cage the directional gyro and set it to zero or set it to the heading – set it on ninety if you were going east or eighteen if you were going south – whatever it happened to be. This is the way you do it and this is the way you want to open the throttle – he’d do the whole thing and make a circuit and downwind bash down some flap and so on. He’d do the whole thing and then he’d say, “You go ahead and have a ‘go. I would and did fairly well at it. I think we got along. His method of teaching was don’t get excited and take it easy- nothing drastic is going to happen. It was very reassuring, really, because he certainly was the perfect personification of confidence if nothing else. He certainly could fly and fly extremely well. I think it was the non-screaming low key approach. So many other guys had instructors who would almost get hysterical. They’d get so excited if you did something the least bit wrong. I think it was pretty easy on that score simply because he was so relaxed and it just kind of “transmitted” - easy going and calm but absolutely in control of everything. We used to twit each other on account of our accents. He used to call me ‘Ayid’ for Ed. Being from Kentucky, he really did have a southern drawl. I felt as though I was treated like a Canadian, and I don’t think there is anything I can add to that. I don’t really think that there was any distinct American-Canadian association. In fact, I don’t recall that the subject of who you were or where you came from came up very often. I don’t know how it felt to wear a U.S.A. shoulder flash because mine said Canada. Without doubt, it was the experience of a lifetime. I'm glad I went. The only regret is not finishing a tour but that's pretty small stuff compared to the reason; the end of the war. If only I had gone sooner ..., if, if if!!”