TUESDAY, Sept. 10, 2013: - UPDATE - This posting is a combined tribute: mine and one from a growing number - now at more than 140 - of men and women on four continents to honour some 3,500 largely-forgiven and unheralded civilians who came from 23 allied nations starting in 1939 to “rescue” the combined air forces of three nations about to face a second world war: Canada, Great Britain and the United States of America. These civilians, sworn to secrecy, were all un-armed and non-uniformed “employees”. They executed this “rescue” in grand-slam style, busting one frontier after another, becoming - along with a handful of already existing national and international commercial airline operations - midwives to today’s incredibly fine international airline system. They did this by creating, in 1940 through a national railroad operation in Canada, what would quickly become known 18 months later - starting in mid-1941- as the Royal Air Force’s “Ferry Command’ (FC). This RAF FC is but one of its shorter, more popular names and from all evidence became the very first “air ferry command” of any kind in the world. After mid-1941, a wide variety of air force “commands” would quickly follow their successful lead, and do wonders in taking up the baton passed on to them by these civilians. The original RAF FC civilians did the impossible by successfully flying, from Canada - and other bases later - more than 9,500 twin-engine bombers - of the 10,000 assigned to their trust and skills. They flew them across un-friendly and un-charted skies over heavily enemy-infested waters of the North Atlantic Ocean to their buyers, Great Britain, and to other theatres of World War II when and where they were needed the most. Nearly 1,500 of these same civilians were air crews. Almost 500 - or nearly 1/3 of them - gave their lives in the process of doing their job. This was an inordinately high death rate, representing a fatality rate of nearly 30% - almost equal to those of front-line military personnel. Their job was considered suicidal and impossible by most military aviation experts of the day. On top of that, the combined air forces of the three nations involved simply did not have enough air and ground crews to handle this monumental air transfer; therefore, to provide air crews, the rescued governments had to rely on the very best that civilian and commercial aviation of the day could offer at the time: the a-list, the elite of the elite, crème-de-la-crème of the an international aviation system still in its infancy. As I close my manuscript - titled “Earth Angels Rising” - I make this posting on my two Facebook pages - this one and the one titled “Civilians of Ferry Command” - in the hopes of obtaining more leads to the so very few survivors of this magnificent operation. There are probably fewer than 20 of these 3,500 civilians known to be still among us today, and I have had the privilege of interviewing or contacting 8 of them. They were young men in WW II - most are now celebrating birthdays and are in their mid-80s to early 90s. Maybe I could obtain more leads to families who had relatives who flew with and worked with or for Ferry Command - either as civilians or as military personnel - and who wish to honour their memories and pass on their heritage and legacy to our children today. This posting seems to be working. Facebook statistics of who’s been looking, liking and / or sharing this posting since I began posting it last week indicate that it’s been “viewed” by 142 individuals in 2 languages (English and Portuguese) in 32 cities in 4 countries on 4 continents … Europe, North America and South America, Eurasia (Pakistan) … my thanks to all of you. Randomly-selected civilians of today are named below … Donna McVicar Kazo and her brother, Gordon … Carl Christie … Bill VanDerKloot … and Louis Lang. Donna is highly active from her Florida home in posting what she can about her Dad, Captain Don McVicar, one of the 1500 civilian pilots in the RAF FC. I highly recommend her Facebook pages dedicated to the memory of, and writings of, her Dad. She monitors a page in his name, and a page dedicated to one of his many books … The first is about Don … https://facebook/pages/Captain-Don-McVicar-OBE/210816915607652 The second is about one of his books - “Ferry Command Pilot” … https://facebook/pages/Ferry-Command-Pilot/215707365119602 Backtracking a bit here … my own manuscript is compendium of interviews, anecdotes, narratives and stories from numerous other sources which deal with the early creative months, such as when the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Air Services Department took on the job of organizing these civilians into what became the RAF FC . The Royal Air Force took over the operation at American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s request, wresting it from civilian hands and turning it into a military command. Some of today’s modern-day civilians also deserve a tribute. They are the relatives and friends of the 1940 civilians of this manuscript, who today who struggle to preserve the memories of their parents and friends who served humanity so well between 1939 and 1940. • Donna and her brother, Gordon, of Montréal, Québec, Canada - are the two children of Don McVicar, one of the many civilian pilots of Ferry Command. He was a pioneer aviator in many respects and a pioneer in the field of self-publishing. He went on after the war to write a series of adventurous and dramatic books about his experiences as a civilian Ferry Command pilot. Donna and Gordon are preserving their father’s memorabilia through re-issuing of a number of his books, electronically at first, and perhaps into hard print copies later. • Then, there is another son - William (Bill) VanDerKloot, Atlanta, Georgia, whose father was one of the more famous civilian Ferry Command pilots … Bill VanDerKloot. His father went on to become one of the very few pilots assigned to fly Prime Minister Winston Churchill to different high-level conferences during the war, and who in his own right has become a noted dramatic film and movie producer. He too is preserving what he could of his Dad’s legacy, which can be dramatically seen in his 2008 television documentary, “Flying the Secret Sky: The Story of the RAF Ferry Command” which aired on PBS stations throughout the USA. Bill suggested that those interested can visit the film’s web site, flyingthesecretsky/ • Two other modern-day civilians, not necessarily related to any civilian member of Ferry Command, deserve no less a tribute … they are Carl A. Christie (with Fred. J Hatch) who wrote the 458-page 1995 book, “Ocean Bridge: The History of RAF Ferry Command” (University of Toronto Press). This book alone can easily be considered “the bible” and where I am concerned, is perhaps the most fascinating, enjoyable, easy-to-read and accurate source of information about the ENTIRE story behind Ferry Command. Carl is currently completing a new manuscript for University of Toronto Press - a history of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Below is a web site containing some postings by Carl: forces-war-records.co.uk/Unit-Info/1736 . • Last but not least in this brief listing is Louis Lang, another Montréaler, who joined Ferry Command as an aircrew member working as a civilian radio operator. Today, at age 89, he still struggles to obtain recognition for the families of his colleagues in the original Ferry Command. Louis is one of the very few original Ferry Command members still with us in the space age. Lou is credited with having raised the interest of nearly 1,000,000 Canadians in having Ottawa grant benefits to Ferry Command civilians. His efforts to accomplish this began in 1946, and they have paid off for some - at long last, by 1980, the Canadian government finally granted benefits and recognition of Ferry Command’s civilian aircrews. Louis also has a Facebook page … https://facebook/louis.lang.50?fref=ts • Enough for today … thanks to all for looking … and I hope that you enjoyed reading this … I promise to try and keep my postings as brief as possible, but sometimes I have no choice … they just take up space. I am honoured to be among the modern-day civilians struggling to preserve memories and the heritage these civilians passed on to us.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 12:49:20 +0000
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