Hi, and welcome to my website.
My name is John and I was born in Bermuda in 1956.
In 1958 we moved to Curaçao, then to Aruba in 1960, and back to Curaçao in 1961 until 1968.
In early 1968 we moved to Canada, and I grew up in Toronto (Etobicoke) & Sudbury, both in Ontario.
When I left school, I got a job as an aircraft mechanic for a small commuter airline in northern Ontario called norOntair (see pictures) which flew Twin Otters, initially operating out of Sudbury and then Timmins... and no, I never met Shania.
During my above time as an aircraft mechanic, although the Twin Otter was my main responsibility as an aircraft mechanic, the following are also aircraft that we had, and that I was an aircraft mechanic on:
In 1974 I joined the Canadian Armed Forces
(also referred to as the Canadian Forces, but what is now the Royal Canadian Air Force), and the following are places where I was stationed at:
| 1974-1975 |
Various training bases in Canada
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| 1975-1979 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Shearwater,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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CP-121 Tracker
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CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)
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CH-135 Twin Huey
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CH-124 Sea King
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| 1979-1983 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen,
West Germany with
NATO
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CF-104D Starfighter
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| 1983-1984 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Portage-la-Prairie,
Manitoba,
Canada
|
CT-134 Musketeer
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CH-136 Kiowa
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CT-114 Tutor
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| 1984-1984 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Summerside,
Prince Edward Island,
Canada
|
CP-121 Tracker
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| 1984-1985 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
|
CP-140 Aurora
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| 1985-1989 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Comox,
British Columbia,
Canada
|
CP-140 Aurora
|
CP-121 Tracker
|
CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)
|
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| 1989-1990 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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CP-140 Aurora
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| 1990-Present |
Bermuda (in the Canadian Armed Forces Supplementary Reserves)
|
Canadian Armed Forces bases undergoing training:
-
Canadian Forces Base CFB Borden,
Ontario,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Cold Lake,
Alberta,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Cornwallis,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
-
Canadian Forces Base CFB Edmonton,
Alberta,
Canada
-
Canadian Forces Base CFB Kingston,
Ontario,
Canada
-
Canadian Forces Base CFS Penhold,
Alberta,
Canada
-
Canadian Forces Base CFS Toronto (Downsview),
Ontario,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Winnipeg,
Manitoba,
Canada
Deployments in Canada:
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Canadian Forces Base CFS Inuvik,
Northwest Territories,
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Canadian Forces Base CFS Montréal,
Québec,
Canada
(1976 Summer Olympics)
-
Canadian Forces Base CFS St. John's (Torbay),
Newfoundland,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
-
Canadian Forces Base Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories,
Canada
(NORPATs)
-
Cambridge Bay,
Victoria Island,
Nunavut,
Canada
(NORPATs)
-
Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit),
Baffin Island,
Nunavut,
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Prince Rupert,
British Columbia,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
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Sandpit,
Queen Charlotte Islands,
British Columbia,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
Deployments in the USA:
-
US Naval Air Station NAS Adak,
Alaska,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Barbers Point,
Hawaii,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Moffett Field (San Francisco),
California,
USA
-
US Naval Air Station NAS North Island (San Diego),
California,
USA
-
US Naval Air Station NAS Willow Grove,
Pennsylvania,
USA
-
US Air Force Base Ellsworth AFB,
South Dakota,
USA
-
US Air Force Base Seymour Johnson AFB,
North Carolina,
USA
Deployments in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany):
I retired early from the Canadian Armed Forces & moved back to Bermuda in 1990, to start a second career in IT... as there's not much call for hunting Soviet submarines  on civvie street.
I was in Bermuda for more than 31 years, working in IT for various companies, including 13 years with IBM Bermuda (a division of IBM Canada) servicing (repairing) ATM cash machines.
Although, a few years ago I had a part-time job flying a local Bell JetRanger, taking people on helicopter tours around Bermuda. But the helicopter was sold in 1998 due to no business, and since then I've been flying a desk here  .
I'm retiring in the summer of 2021, having reached age 65, and as it is too expensive to retire in Bermuda (according to some sources, Bermuda is the most-expensive place in the world to live), I will be relocating back to Canada. It will be a crap-shoot getting there, with all the COVID-19 lockdowns, travel restrictions & flight cancellations, but...
That's me in the pic... Capt. John - Bermuda Helicopters Ltd. (in civilian flightsuit, not military flightsuit).
That's about it for me...
Canadian Decoration
medal |
NATO Special Service
medal |
This page was last updated: 24 Apr 2021 at 08:50 GMT
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