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: Beechcraft Model 18 Cessna Model 310 Model 337 Skymaster Model 402 Consolidated PBY Canso (Catalina) De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver DHC-3 Otter DHC-6 Twin Otter Douglas DC-3

Me, with Bermuda Helicopters mid-1990s

Me, today

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
1975-1979	Canadian Forces Base CFB Shearwater, Nova Scotia, Canada	CP-121 Tracker	CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)	CH-135 Twin Huey	CH-124 Sea King
1979-1983	Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen, West Germany with NATO	CF-104D Starfighter
1983-1984	Canadian Forces Base CFB Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba, Canada	CT-134 Musketeer	CH-136 Kiowa	CT-114 Tutor
1984-1984	Canadian Forces Base CFB Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada	CP-121 Tracker
1984-1985	Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada	CP-140 Aurora
1985-1989	Canadian Forces Base CFB Comox, British Columbia, Canada	CP-140 Aurora	CP-121 Tracker	CT-133 Silver Star (T-bird)
1989-1990	Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Canada	CP-140 Aurora

Canadian Armed Forces bases undergoing training:

• Canadian Forces Base CFB Borden, Ontario, Canada
• Canadian Forces Base CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada
• 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 CFB Toronto (Downsview), Ontario, Canada
• Canadian Forces Base CFB Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Deployments in Canada:

• Canadian Forces Base CFS Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada (NORPATs)
• 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, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), Canada (NORPATs)
• Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit), Baffin Island, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), Canada (NORPATs)
• Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada (FISHPATs)
• Sandpit, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada (FISHPATs)

Deployments in the USA:

• Lockheed Burbank (Skunk Works), Hollywood Burbank Airport, California, USA
• US Air Force Base Ellsworth AFB (Rapid City), South Dakota, USA
• US Air Force Base Seymour Johnson AFB (Goldsboro), North Carolina, USA
• US Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska, USA
• US Naval Air Station NAS Adak, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA
• US Naval Air Station NAS Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii, USA
• 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 (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, USA

Deployments worldwide:

• Royal Air Force Base RAF Kinloss, Scotland
• US Naval Air Station NAS Bermuda (formerly Kindley Air Force Base)
• US Naval Air Station NAS Keflavik, Iceland
• US Naval Air Facility NAF Lajes (Portuguese Air Base Lajes), Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal

Attachments in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):

• 1982 Canadian Starfighters Air Demonstration Team

Deployments in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):

• Canadian Forces Base CFB Lahr, West Germany
• US Air Force Base RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, England
• Belgian Air Foce Base Kleine Brogel, Belgium
• West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Jever, West Germany
• West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Nörvenich, 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 in the 1990s 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 I spent the remaining decades in Bermuda flying a desk .

I retired in August 2021, having reached age 65, and as it was too expensive to retire in Bermuda (according to some sources, Bermuda is the most-expensive place in the world to live), I relocated back to Canada, and am living now in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

That's me in the left pic at the top in the 1990s... Captain John - Bermuda Helicopters Ltd. (in civilian flightsuit, NOT military flightsuit), and me today.

That's about it for me...

Canadian Decoration medal

NATO Special Service medal

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This page was last updated: 10 Feb 2022