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My name is not Elaine
“Beautiful,” said Craig Halliwell, setting his eyes on the “colour bird” on the Kamloops Airport runway.
A retired 419 Tactical Fighter (Training) Squadron pilot, Halliwell was quick to appreciate the paint job on the RCAF Hawk trainer jet – colours that reflect the history of Moose Squadron and its connection to Kamloops.
Lt. Col. Mike “Moose” Grover flew in Thursday in advance of the squadron’s 75th anniversary celebrations this weekend.
Grover said artist Jim Belliveau designed the colours to replicate bombers flown during the Second World War.
“With this, to me, we’re bringing home John’s bird,” he said, referring to John “Moose” Fulton, first commanding officer of the squadron during the war, who was from Kamloops.
Moose Squadron, based in Cold Lake, Alta., is a family, too.
“You train like you fight,” Grover said. “Your life depends on everybody you work with. That tightens you as a unit.”
One hundred and seventy-five current and former members are gathering in Kamloops for the reunion.
Alex Sim, a local veteran of the Second World War and Korean War, serves as honorary commanding officer.
The squadron earned its honours in some of the fiercest battle theatres of the Second World War, seeing combat over the English Channel, North Sea, Baltic Sea, France, Germany and over Normandy during the decisive invasion of 1944.
Halliwell, now a commercial pilot with Cathay Pacific, drove up from Peachland for the weekend and was happy to run into a former colleague right off the bat.
“We just picked up like we did 25 years ago,” he said.
The squadron holds a Freedom of the City parade on Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
The parade begins at Riverside Park and proceeds up 1st Avenue, across Lansdowne Street and Victoria Street to reach City Hall. It will continue down Victoria Street to 8th Avenue and finish on Lansdowne Street in front of the Kamloops Legion.
A fly past of CT-155 Hawk aircraft will soar overhead.
Five 419 Hawks will be among a variety of aircraft on display Sunday during YKA’s open house from 1 to 4 p.m.
