Home for Remembrance Day
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Born and raised in Courtland, Ont., Second World War veteran Allan Chipps enlisted in 1941.
"I was working in a military factory and I didn't 'have' to go," said Chipps, who signed up with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). "I was a mechanic to start, went to boot camp in Toronto, then I went to night school and was on a pilot's course for a year and a half.
"No postings," he noted.
That prompted him to change gears and become a navigator, learning on an Avro Anson.
"I had Grade 8 education (Courtland Public School)," he noted, "but they sent me to McGill University to bring me up to standard. I did my flight training at the Toronto Island Airport."
He was posted at St. Jean, Quebec, near Montreal, for navigation school.
"I got my wings, then we packed our bags in Dorval - we were going to go to Burma. Then they dropped the A-Bomb and we got sent on leave, so I never got overseas."
Receiving his discharge along with more than 900,000 troops and air force personnel over a six-month period, he said it was
"That made nearly 1,000,000 factory workers on the market, so it was a pretty tough world right then. But I had a mechanic's license, so I could find work. Not very good work, but it was work."
Chipps continued to fly planes until he was 87. He fondly remembers working as a mechanic/pilot at the Aylmer airport when they had 110 Harvard planes.
"Every time we changed an engine, one mechanic had to fly in it, to test it. That was compulsory. No one else wanted to fly them, so I did," said Chipps, noting he also got a raise in pay for the flights. His last Harvard flight was in 1943-44.
He did continue to fly Cornells, however, putting about 3,000 hours in after the war.
"And I had a Stinson after that, flew it for about 10 years."
On Friday, Chipps and his family had lunch at the Tillsonburg Regional Airport, and had photos taken by the four Harvards that had landed a few minutes earlier after flying over the Toronto Remembrance Day Ceremony.
After WWII ended, Chipps worked in Toronto for a year and a half, then returned to Tillsonburg. A member of the Tillsonburg Legion Branch 153, Chipps lived in Stratford for the past 30 years with wife, who worked for Canada Customs. Just last week, when his wife moved into a nursing home, he moved back to live with family in Tillsonburg.
"I often paraded here when I lived in Stratford," he noted.
Born in 1918, Chipps will be 99 in February, and plans to attend the 2017 Remembrance Day Service in Tillsonburg, likely as the oldest vet.
"I can't find anybody who's 100 years old," he smiled. "I walk every day... it's part of my health plan."
Chipps walks to McDonald's every day for coffee.
"It's the caffeine that keeps me alive," he joked.