The Fight for Freedom Calls

I enlisted into the Royal Canadian Air Force January 16, 1942.  I wanted to be a pilot.  I wanted to do something that would secure the free world from the invading forces of the German Army driven by Hitler who was trying to conquer all of Europe.  Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, and United States was now at war both with Germany and Japan.  Great Britain alone of the European countries was still fighting the Germans.  The others were conquered.  One of my friends who was a pilot for the Royal Air Force had been killed, and some of my friends had already enlisted.

I am an American citizen as was my family, but after having lived in Canada for so many years, gone to school there, I was at that time completely devoted to the British Commonwealth.  So I never even thought of enlisting in the United States Army Air Force as it was called at that time.  I was called into the main office in the first camp at least three times because they had listed me as an American citizen with an address in Toronto, and they were sure their records were wrong.  Each time I assured them my home address was right and that I had lived in Canada a long time.

In March I was called up and told to report to the Toronto Exhibition Grounds.  These grounds had been turned into a huge induction camp where the new enlistees were outfitted and given their inoculations against any number of diseases, I lost count of the number.  There was even the inspection for venereal diseases jokingly called the short arm inspection.  I felt embarrassed as I stood nude in front of the military officer who inspected us one after another.

We slept in a huge barracks, hundreds of double bunks all filled; and even though they had added more bathrooms, the crowds trying to shave, shower and take care of all their needs was a frantic wild scene.  I learned after just one of these experiences to get out of my bunk the moment I awakened and rush into the bathroom ahead of the crowd. 

Meals were a madhouse too with so many of us.  We lined up to be seated at long picnic-like tables with benches on both sides.  Waiters put food in front of us and cleared as fast as possible.  In order to eat, you ate fast because the tables were being filled up by the next huge line coming in for their food.  I hardly knew what I ate, I ate so fast.

From this induction point I was sent on to a school for navigators.  I had failed night vision testing completely and had to bear the disappointment that I wouldn’t be a pilot.  At this time with so many men and women enlisting the authorities could be very particular.  As the war went on and the draft was made law, many rules were relaxed with need for men.

I was in a class of 67 men, and we were billeted in what had been a private school.  We wore our uniforms as inductees in the air force.  We stood at parade attention early each morning with our books in our left hands, our right hands free for salutes.  We were inspected, shoes shined, clothes clean and clean shaven.  We marched to class, we marched to lunch and to dinner.  When we weren’t in class, we exercised.  One exercise I remember most was running.  We had shorts and tank tops much like our underwear, even gym shoes, and we marched to the beginning point where we started our run, and we ran and ran.  I never heard what our mileage was.  I just knew I kept up; we all did.  We were there, I think, until July when we graduated.  We each received a white band to put into the front of our cap which indicated we were navigation students.

We went on from there to an air force camp near Toronto, where we stayed for about three weeks.  It was a very dull period; we were put into jobs as guards to the camp.  We were on duty 24 hours and off 24 hours.  While on duty we wore our uniforms, and were ordered to stay completely dressed during the full 24 hours.  We had several half hours during the night off duty when I’d lie down and fall fast asleep immediately.  Once when I was in a tower with a complete view of the camp, I was so tired I fell asleep standing up; my knees would buckle and this would wake me, for which I was thankful.  There were such dire warnings about falling asleep on duty.

©Joseph H. Harrison 1999