Air force women love to see each other annually

For the past 11 years, local women who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force have been gathering once a year to share their stories, renew their relationships and make new connections.

The Comox Valley Airwomen began 11 years ago to bring together women who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from wartime until 1967. They meet for a potluck get-together every October.

“It’s just to get together and share old times,” said member Jan Fraser.

Mostly, women arrive at the potluck from the Comox Valley, but this year, there was one woman from Campbell River, and there have been women from Nanaimo as well, noted Fraser.

“We have had younger women who have served in the military,” she added. “The RCAF was until 1967, and then the army, navy and air force combined into the Canadian Forces. We have had some of the younger people who served in the Canadian Forces.”

There are also three or four local women who served overseas during the Second World War, she noted.

“It’s nice to share their experiences,” said Fraser.

During the October get-together, the Comox Valley Airwomen gather at the Comox Legion and have a potluck and a gift exchange. They share stories and photographs and spend the time reconnecting.

“It’s a way of keeping up contact and seeing what people are doing,” said Fraser. “Most of us know everyone’s stories now, but if we get new people, we ask them to talk about what trade they did and where they were stationed.”

Fraser was in the air force for three years from 1958 to 1961 and spent three years in the reserves.

“We did have a good time,” she said. “I had a chance to travel. My husband was in the military, and we travelled all over Europe, Bermuda and every province of Canada.”

Fraser was a member of the air force police.

“It was an interesting job,” she said. “In those days, when you got married, you got out. So some of us would have had longer careers.”

She considers her best posting working with a special investigations unit in Edmonton for a few months.

“That was interesting because the files were more investigating,” she said. “There was more interesting reading in the files.”

Pat Verchere started the group 11 years ago.

“There are a lot of ex-airwomen here in town because it’s a base, and we all married airmen, and here we are,” she said.

For years, they kept saying they should have a dinner or get-together, and finally, someone told Verchere she should organize something, and they would help, she recalled.

“It’s amazing the number of people, the wives who are here who you know every day, and it’s like ‘I didn’t know you were in the service,’” said Verchere.

The Comox Legion gives the Airwomen the hall for free, and the women collect donations for the Poppy Fund during their potluck.

Sometimes, the women have a guest speaker, and sometimes all the members say what they did in the service.

“It’s just a casual afternoon for us all,” said Verchere. “A whole year will go by, and you won’t run into anyone. It’s nice, and people expect it.”

There are usually 60 to 70 women at the potluck, and they have a list of about four or five pages with names of women they can contact, noted Verchere.

There is always a memorial table, and they remember group members who have passed away.

“We were all just probably teenagers when we joined ... we all joined in the late 1950s, but we’re getting some younger ones,” said Verchere. “It’s the same story, just different people. Everyone has the same pictures, just a different place. We all have a picture of a bunch of girls on the fire escape.”

Verchere was in the air force from 1955 to 1958, stationed in Aylmer and Rockliffe, Ont.

She then went to Fort Nelson, B.C., where she was married. She and her husband were the last people to be married in the church in Fort Nelson because the base was closing at the time.

“We’ve been a lot of places,” said Verchere. “It’s been a good life; our kids have seen a lot of things.”

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

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