Ian Douglas MacDonald

I went to join the air force and I didn’t have enough education to get into air crew. So I went into ground crew and I had to spend, I think it was six months, at Vancouver Technical School to get -I was an air frame mechanic and, - to get enough qualifications to do that. And after I did that, I joined the air force, November 1941. As my father and my brother both were in the service, I just felt I should be in the service too. I went to Toronto for my basic training and I was only there about six weeks. Then I went to St. Thomas [Ontario] for a course in aeromechanics. I was there for probably three months I guess and then I was transferred to a Service Flying School at Dunnville, Ontario. And I was established there for I guess almost two years. And while I was there, I went to the ITS [Initial Training School] to get qualified for air crew. I got enough mathematics and navigation to qualify for air crew. And then I re-mustered. From there, I went back to Toronto and then I went to a school in Hamilton as a preamble to going to Initial Training School. From there, I went to Victoriaville, Quebec, which was an Initial Training School. I graduated. From there, I went to Malton and then I graduated as a bomb aimer, from air crew, at Malton Airport in Toronto [now Pearson International airport]. And by that time, the war was just about to its end and in 1945, I was released in, I think it was in May of 1945. And I was put on the air crew reserve and I never had any more service after that.