While doing the tourist thing, by collecting up a lot of those sights and attractions brochures you find in the lobby of most hotels, I came across another stop of interest. A few hours drive north of us, was the Comox Air Force Museum, in you guessed it, Comox. I pleaded with my wife, acting much like a child who has found a neat toy in a store and wanted it. She agreed, but the drive was going to take up most of that day and we would have to over night to see it. I had no problem with that.
After checking into a Holiday Inn Express and a restless night's sleep, we arrived at the Comox Airport. From the brochures, I was anticipating a much more enjoyable time then I had experienced in Esquimalt.
Most of the displays were very much like this one, with a large carded background with information and pictures, accompanied with models or a real world physical tie in. Once again, I went camera happy, but thanks to not properly adjusting my phone to take better indoor, low light shots, most of the picture have this fuzzy quality to them. However, some shots turned out just fine.
Some exhibits also had large, finely detailed models hanging from overhead, like this Curtiss P-40. Others, had mannequins wear uniforms and flight suits in much better condition then the last place I had visited.
While some displays covered Canadian involvement in general....
....others were more specific to an area of operation, covering domestic tasks....
As I have said elsewhere, no discussion of Canadian air power during World War 2 would be complete without some mention of Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, RCNVR. This display not only drove that point home a little harder for me, but brought about a moment of silence, thanking him for his valiant sacrifice.
The models on displayed were very evidently a labor of love, for those who worked on them. Here is a small sampling of what I saw....
The last display really illustrates another forgotten piece of history. Pilots and air crews of these magnificent warbirds are the ones who are remembered and celebrated the most, with the ground crews mostly ignored. If it wasn't for their hard work, servicing these aircraft under sometimes primitive conditions and hostile actions, those great air battles never would have happened. Or, the outcomes would have been a very different result.
A lot of care and consideration went into the creation of the squadron displays I saw. A good balance of pictures and written content to educate and models at add some flavor to the experience.
An RAF Mustang, still flown by a little Canadian.
Because this is me here, I spent a fair amount of time at this exhibit. Can you figure why?
There was so much I saw and captured with my camera, an experience I will never forget. I have only shared but a small part of my tour here, best to be seen in person, since pictures would never do these displays the justice they truly deserve. For me, the whole vacation and the museum tours were an education, entertaining and sometimes, a very somber experience. I remain thankful for those who served before me, their actions creating the very world we live in today.
It's to those who made the ultimate sacrifice I bow my head to, never seeing the world they shaped in their moment of gallantry and bravery. But, then again, there could be another, who will rise to the challenge and keep that dream alive....
No comments:
Post a Comment