In Nov. 1941 I went to London, Ontario to enlist in the R.C.A.F. as  n Air Crew member. Initially, I wanted to be a pilot and was sent to take a pre-enlistment educational course at the Teachers Training College in Hamilton, Ontario from Nov.15th, 1941 to Feb. 22nd, 1942. I was then sent to the Toronto Manning Depot by train. The second day I broke a bone n my ankle while playing basketball and spent the next month in the Christie St. Hospital before returning to the Manning Depot. I received my “Tarmac Duty” at Alymer, Ontario and was then sent on to #9 Bombing and Gunnery School at Mont Joli, Quebec. We graduated and received our wings on Dec. 18th, 1942. I then came home to Brucefield, Ontario for my embarkation leave. Upon completion of my leave I headed to Halifax to proceed overseas. I, along with eleven other boys missed our draft due to snow storms and late trains, but on Jan. 26th, 1943 we were on our way to England aboard the Andies ship. On Feb. 5th, 1943 we landed at Gourock Scotland and then proceeded by train to Bournemouth on the south coast of England, arriving about 4 A.M. Feb. 6th, 1943. Our knowledge of blackouts was “nil” and the first few evenings we returned to the barracks with a few bumps, bruises, and scraped due to walking into unseen objects. My stay in Bournemouth was short. The first fifteen Canadians in our course were sent to an Australian O.T.U. #27 at Litchfield, England to receive our first training for operations. Here we were assembled into Crews. My first Pilot was Sgt. Crook, but our navigator walked into a prop one night and as a result we were split up. My second Pilot was Ron Vaughan with a crew consisting of Andy Gordon, Len Day, Dave Lundy, Dennis Thomas, Noel Hapwood, and myself- 3 English, 3 Australian and I the only Canadian. We were then sent to the conversion Unit at Blighton to train. We covered Wellingtons, then Halifax, then Lancasters and were sent to join the 460 Australian Squadron at Binbrook in the #1 Group Bomber Command. We arrived the evening of May 28th 1943.