7928

 

7928  Cajo Brando

 

 

 

Everything I owned was in the back of my ‘69 Mustang as I drove out through the Arch in May of 1969 for the last time. The thought of looking back at the rear view mirror as I did so crossed my mind and I intentionally didn’t do so. No more exams, pilot training and the whole wide world lay ahead. No look back required.

 

So now I am looking back over the intervening 55 years as all of us do from time to time, the good and the maybe not so good, things learned, unlearned and relearned, realizing full well that there are more days behind than ahead.

 

So… to summarize:

 

July 1969- July 1970  

Pilot selection and training at CFB Borden, Ontario and CFB Gimli, Manitoba flying the Chipmunk, Tutor and T-33.

 

Sept 1970- June 1974 

They didn’t have a posting for us after getting our wings, so off to Moose Jaw Sask. for “Holdover” flying on the Tutor over the winter, finally getting posted to Portage La Prairie, Man. in March 1971 to instruct would be pilots initially on the Chipmunk, soon to be replaced by the Beechcraft Musketeer.

 

When I arrived at RMC in 1967 after CMR. Mary was my blind date and I think we were the only couple out of the 50 student nurses visiting RMC that day who had a second date. Following Mary’s graduation from KGH in 1970 we became engaged at Christmas and married in June 1971. We bought our first house in Portage a few months before our posting to Trenton Ont. in July 1974 just in time for the birth of our son Rob.

 

Aug 1974- Jun 1978

Four great years on the C-130 Hercules out of CFB Trenton flying all over the planet with 16,400 horsepower and plenty of trunk space. Roles included Tactical Airlift, Search and Rescue, freight and talking freight. Lots, maybe too much away time, over 200 days one year, particularly with Mary having Rob and then new daughter Jessie to look after on her own.

 

Jul 1978- Jul 1980

Posted on exchange to the 39^th Tactical Airlift Squadron, Pope AFB, USAF at Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina to fly the American C-130. My promotion to Major came through a week after I got there and the boss made me the Squadron Chief Pilot, I think mainly because I had more flying time on the Herc than pretty well anyone else on squadron. Flying was all low level tactical formation involving airdrop of personnel and equipment as well as LAPES, (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System), at times pumping a 17 ton tank out the back flying five to ten feet off the ground. Sporty!

 

Sep 1980- Jun 1981 Staff College, Toronto.

Looking beyond not being able to fly, damaged ego, mind gagging reading and no family time, I recall it fondly. Enough said.

 

Jul 1981- Jul 1985

Air Transport Group HQ, Trenton Ont.

Back to Trenton as the chief check pilot on the C-130 and the Dash 7 aircraft.

The job was to carry out operational readiness inspections on all transport bases and squadrons and do the check rides on squadron commanders and squadron senior check pilots. On promotion to LCol in 1982 I took over the evaluation and standardization shop for all aircrew trades.

 

Aug 1985- Jul 1988

Commander #2 NATO AWACS Squadron, Geilenkirchen, Germany. Great to run an international squadron comprised of 11 different nationalities. Flying a spy plane sounds pretty cool but except for deployments to some interesting places, the flying job itself was amazingly dull and boring. Spending 9.5 hours orbiting 20 minute static racetracks on autopilot, only occasionally tweaking the throttles gets old pretty quickly. Highlight of the day is opening your box lunch, and you want to put that off as long as possible.

 

Jul 1988- Jul 1990

On promotion to Colonel, posted to NATO Airborne Early Warning Force Command, Casteau, Belgium as AWACS Plans, Policy and Requirements Division Chief. The job was to plan and develop equipment upgrades for the AWACS fleet with some occasional flying for dessert to keep my hand in.

 

Aug 1990- Jul 1993

Base Commander CFB Ottawa and Wing Commander 7 Wing. This included both bases at Uplands and Rockcliffe. Flew the CC109 Cosmo every now and then but only played golf twice. One of the more interesting aspects of the job was meeting and welcoming to Canada and my patch, every President, King, Queen, and Poobah that came to visit Ottawa during those 3 years.

 

Aug 1993- Jul 1994

National Defence College, Kingston, Ont. A surprisingly interesting and enriching year rubbing shoulders with many old and new friends.

 

Jul 1994- Jul 1996

Having eluded NDHQ for over 25 years, the time had finally come. I was handed the J3 Ops Directorate for Chemical, Biological and Radiation Defence, double hatted with the Directorate for Canadian Forces International Training. Those 2 years went quickly and I was promoted to BGen.

 

Jul 1996- Jul 1998

Director General for Aerospace Development responsible for defining the future needs of the Air Force in terms of new equipment and the maintenance of existing inventory. This is when we started down the road of acquiring the F-35 which we may finally see in 2026 some 30 years later.

 

Jul 1998- Dec 1999

Director  General for Air Force Personnel responsible for policy on all Air Force specific trades, training, human resources etc. Also under oversight was our brand new pilot training plant NATO Flying Training Canada (NFTC), a DND/ private enterprise partnership with Bombardier Canada to train Canadian pilots and market this training internationally.

 

Towards the end of 1999 with compulsory retirement now just 2 years away, I decided to leave the Canadian Forces. Sixty plus hours a week in the office, my pension maxed out, mortgage paid, and the kids were finished university. Time for something else.

 

Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) was something I was instrumental in introducing to the Canadian Forces. On retirement I took mediation training and contracted myself out to DND to help resolve a number of ADR issues. After two years I was contacted by DND and invited back as a reservist at my previous rank to head up the team to market NFTC and to promote and sell Canadian military pilot training to NATO and other countries worldwide. I did that for the next five years until reaching the revised retirement age of 60.

 

During this time I also returned more seriously to photography, something I had been engaged in on and off since having an ad hoc darkroom in our kitchen in high school.

I had never been at all interested in golf or bridge until Mary and I fell in with a crowd of military guys and wives who lived and breathed these interests. As a result for the past several years I’ve been playing catch up. I’m still not a very good golfer but with most of the other guys whining how their game isn’t what it used to be, mine is still improving!

 

So here we are, Mary and I, coming up to our 53^rd anniversary. Our two grown kids, Rob and Jess and their spouses have given us four wonderful grandkids, all of us living here in Ottawa. We feel very fortunate to be this close to our family and to still be in contact with our circle of great friends made over the years. Also important and pertinent here, we’re very pleased to be part of that wider circle comprising our class of ’69.