Skip to content | Skip to institutional links

Common menu bar links

Home » Department » Features » Veterans' Week 2000 » Veterans Recollect

Veterans Recollect a Legacy of Peace

For audio and video, you will need to download the RealPlayer. To download the player click here.

SAMUEL SINCLAIR	WILLIAM L. ‘RED' CHISHOLM, DFC and Bar
RealVideo 56 RealVideo 28.8 Samuel John Sinclair is one of Canada's proud aboriginal veterans. Born on November 22, 1926 in Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta he learned the trades of trapping and farming from his Father. When the Second World War was declared in September, 1939, he was too young to join up. In fact, when he eventually did enlist, he admits to have been underage. In this excerpt from Mr. Sinclair's Oral History Project interview with Neil Robinson, he remembers his first engagement with the enemy as a member of the Canadian Army.	RealVideo 56 RealVideo 28.8 Red Chisholm was born in Berwick, Nova Scotia, in the heart of the Annapolis Valley, in 1916. His Father owned a small store. After completing his high school at Kings County Academy in Kentville, Mr. Chisholm worked as a brakeman with the Dominion Atlantic Railroad. After enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he was sent to attend only the second class of the Commonwealth Air Training Program. After completing his training, he was eventually sent to England and then on to a posting in Cairo. In this section of his interview for Veterans Affairs Canada's Oral History Project, Mr. Chisholm recalls an encounter with the German air force over North Africa.
ROBERT JOHNSON	DOUGLAS WARREN, DFC
Clip 1: RealVideo 56 Clip 2: RealVideo 56 Clip 3: RealVideo 56 Clip 4: RealVideo 56 Clip 1: RealVideo 28.8 Clip 2: RealVideo 28.8 Clip 3: RealVideo 28.8 Clip 4: RealVideo 28.8 Robert Johnson was born November 4, 1917 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and now makes his home in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He was the youngest of three children and has a brother and sister. His Father was employed with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. After completing high school in 1932, and in the midst of the Great Depression, he had trouble finding a full-time job so he spent the next few years at odd jobs. On September 10, 1939 Canada declared war on Germany. Three days later, Mr. Johnson enlisted in the Army, later moving to the Royal Canadian Air Force. In this portion of an interview conducted by Veterans Affairs Canada as part of the Oral History Project, Mr. Johnson recalls his plane going down in the jungle of Burma and his three week ordeal to get back to his squadron.	RealVideo 56 RealVideo 28.8 Douglas Warren and his identical twin brother Bruce were born on May 28, 1922 in Nanton, Alberta. Both young men had what Mr. Warren describes as ‘an urgent need to fly'. They both fulfilled that need when the two brothers enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Edmonton. Much of his service was during the war in France and this decorated pilot (he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross) recounts his close encounter with death while dive-bombing over Calais.
Oral History Project - Veterans Affairs Canada is in the fifth year of the Oral Histories project designed to record on broadcast-quality video interviews with veterans of the First and Second World Wars, the Korean and Gulf Wars. To date, almost 1600 hours of video conversations have been recorded. more