Meteorologists Take RCAF Officer Entry Training Course - 1957


Top row (l to r):  F/L Angus Gillingham, F/O Alex Milne, F/O _ Nicholson, F/O Jim Elmslie, F/O Roy Pearson, F/O Ray Crabbe, F/O Ed O'Hara, F/O Don Stanton, F/O Lyle Lonsberry, F/O Charles Dove.
Middle row:  F/L Charlie Walker, F/O Huck Wilby, F/O Joe Oldham, F/O Gord Young, F/O Leo Flaherty, F/O Cy Tricker, F/O Zeph Rynard, F/O Buzz Denton, F/O Garnie Walker.
Front row:  F/O Bill Saunders. F/O Bill Cartwright, F/L Robert K (Bob) Bitcon, F/L Doug McIntosh, F/L Bruce Whiteford (Flgt/Cmdr), F/O Vic Ralph, F/O Ernie Collins, F/O Jack Blowers, F/O Dick Algood.

Notes: 

Almost all meteorologists (also called meteorological officers) who were posted outside of Canada (usually to NATO Bases in Europe) were required to serve in uniform.  Before they departed they had to join a basic entry course for officers in the service to which they would be serving.  Often called irreverently "Knife and Fork" courses, the courses could be lengthy and intense, focusing on all basic entry militaryskills, or they could be short and not too intense.

The course shown above is probably a full entry course, likely given at Winnipeg where RCAF training was conducted in the 1950s.

The two DOT meteorologists, marked in bold, have obviously not yet received their uniforms.


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