I started out as ACII. Aircraftman Second Class. That's as low as you can get. The next thing I did, I volunteered to go overseas, from England. I was tired of being at the station, doing very little.

They were looking for people to make up a draft, so I applied. When they were going along, they said, you sound foreign. I said, "Well, I'm from Newfoundland."

"Oh," they said, "you're lucky."

Now, I didn't know what they meant. I knew I was going somewhere, but I didn't know where. I certainly didn't think I was going to go to Canada. That's where I got sent. To Nova Scotia!

They were building up a training station there. I went training as a flight mechanic.

Amy Anstey and I were going together for years. She was nursing in New York, so I went down there and we got married. She came back to Truro with me. After a year, I got sent back to England, and Amy went back to nursing in New York.

When I got back to England I was stationed in Wales. I joined a Newfoundland squadron then. That was great.

As a mechanic, I did everything. Not only engines, but controls and anything else. I did some flying, but that was on test flights. We did the repairs and then we flew with the pilots to check it out.

When I was discharged, I was a Leading Aircraftman. LAC. Something like a corporal in the army.