904 (Lake Chapala-Mexico) Wing
Air Force Association of Canada
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Last updated
Mar 5, 2010
Special Events
June 2009 |
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In This Issue:
- Annual Dinner/Dance
- Annual General Meeting
- Wing Trivia
- Medical Testing in Mexico
- A Story from WWII
- Meet the Members - Harry Wylie
The annual Dinner/Dance was held at La Nueva Posada on 13 March. It was one of the best with Bill Watt as MC using a sound system that for the first time ever worked perfectly.
Wing Guests
- Capitán Piloto Aviador Roberto Montoya Dorantes and Señora Rosy. Roberto is the President of the Guadalajara Squadron of the Asociación de la Escuela Militar de Aviación, the A.E.M.A., and is a social member of 904 Wing.
- Capitán Piloto Aviador Amador Cantú Muños and Señora Violeta. Cap. Cantú is the Recording Secretary of the Guadalajara Squadron of the A.E.M.A. and a friend of 904 Wing.
- Capitán José (Pepe) Manríquez Zambrano and Señora Alicia. Cap. Manríquez is well known to the members of 904 Wing and, although living in and operating out of Zacatecas, comes back to Guadalajara for the Air Show where he is a featured performer and, we are happy to say, to attend the 904 Wing Annual Dinner. Pepe and Alicia drove 5 ½ hours to attend the Wing Dinner.
This year the Wing Executive Council selected Tombo Thomlinson to receive the Award for Dedicated Service to 904 Wing. The award was presented by President Ron Hudson.
Special Recognition of WW II Veterans
904 Wing is fortunate to count amongst its members eight men and women who served during the Second World War. The Executive Council acknowledged these veterans and recognized their wartime service with a special certificate.
President Ron Hudson presented the certificates to two members who were present at the Dinner.
- Pauline Forrester First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)
- Raoul Schreiden Royal Air Force
- Geoff Marlow Royal Canadian Air Force
- Bill Smith Royal Canadian Air Force
- Ted Conover Canadian Army
- Charles Morgan Royal Air Force
- Roger Ouellet Royal Canadian Air Force
- Josie Wilson Royal Air Force
Annual General Meeting
The 904 Wing Annual General Meeting was held at 1600 hours, Friday, April 3, 2009 at La Nueva Posada. The President and members of the Executive Council reported on activities during the past year. The key item of business was the election of the new Wing Executive Council for 2008 - 2009. Past President Mario Okunsky as chair of the nominating committee presented the nominees to the membership.
The slate of the Wing Executive Council elected by the members for 2009 - 2010 is:
| 904 Wing Executive Council for 2008-2009 | |
| Don Slimman | President |
| Ken Reppen | First Vice President |
| Martin Inwood | Second Vice President |
| Tombo Thomlinson | Treasurer |
| John Prichard | Secretary |
| Ed Healey | Snowbird Rep |
| Ron Hudson | Past President |
Wing Trivia
Four members of 904 Wing met at the RCAF mess in Ottawa for lunch on Friday 29 May. The last Friday of the month is Fish lunch at the RCAF Mess keeping the old tradition of Fish and Chips Friday at the Mess. Present were: Peter DeTracey, Roger Ouellet, Richard Strobl and Renaud Prefontaine.
Renaud invites any members of 904 in the Ottawa area on Friday 26 June to join them for lunch at the RCAF mess. The mess is closed for holidays on the last Friday of July. However, Renaud is willing to organize a lunch any other Friday in July and August if others are interested. RSVP to Renaud Prefontaine.
Wing Presidents Past, Present and Future
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In case you have forgotten, Wing Presidents in sequence from our formation: Bill Watt Peter DeTracey Bob Rowlatt Mario Okunsky Ron Hudson Don Slimman President for 2009 - 2010 |
MEDICAL LABORATORY, IMAGING AND OTHER TESTING IN MEXICO
Many of us are very impressed with the efficiency of medical testing here at Lakeside and Guadalajara. Prompt appointments, courteous staff and you are usually given a complete copy of the results for your own records.
Nevertheless there is one most important precaution to both remember and to take. The results are given to the patient on the presumption that you will be returning to the practitioner who ordered the tests in order that they can interpret and offer you advice. In other words you cannot assume that the laboratory will send the ordering practitioner a copy of the results automatically. I offer two examples that happened to myself and another person in recent times. I have an annual physical examination once a year at a local clinic. I do not personally consider that routine annual examinations are necessary. However I want to be registered with a local physician in the event I require a death certificate which has to be signed by a physician who has prior knowledge of the person concerned. As we all should know, in the event of sudden death, calling the police or Red Cross is not appropriate as your post mortem situation will be greatly complicated and your estate settling greatly delayed. So, I go for my blood tests, get my results which I am very pleased with, as usual. This last visit my physician said something to the effect of my not trusting him. He had never received a copy of the results he had ordered since I had my first annual visit in 2000. Much confusion on my part and I promptly sent him all the previous copies along with the current one.
The second example is more serious with a friend being referred for a routine mammogram and asked to return in one year for a repeat visit. The mammogram was done. On returning the second year the physician asked why my friend had not got her last year's mammogram done. The patient had not gone back to the imaging laboratory to pick up the results or to deliver a copy to the ordering doctor. Unfortunately that year old report was shown to have described a suspicious lesion which was now diagnosed as breast cancer and treatment started a year late, fortunately the patient is doing well at this time.
Therefore I offer the following recommendations.
- Always Obtain your Results from the Laboratory. Keep in your personal medical record which becomes one of your most valuable information folders for the long term future.
- Obtain a Copy for your Ordering Physician. The Laboratory will provide you with another original set of results. Take personally to your physician and obtain their opinion. Do not leave it with a receptionist and expect a phone call.
Lastly, as we are discussing laboratory testing remember most if not all laboratories and other testing centers will do most tests on your request without a formal order from a physician. You will be asked for the name of a physician which should not be too difficult to remember. This action will often save you time and money for multiple physician visits.
Martin Inwood, 904 Wing Medical Advisor
A Story from WW II
Submitted by Ron Hudson "My cousin Verne Freeman, originally from Goodwater Saskatchewan, sent me this. He was a Wellington pilot in WWII. Coincidentally, Bill Smith told me the same story."
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW on- the-lam could go for food and shelter.
Paper maps had some real drawbacks -- they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly, and if they get wet, they turn into mush.
Someone in MI-5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.
When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly.
As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war. Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located (Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece. As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add:
- A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass
- A two-part metal file that could be screwed together
- Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!
The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honoured in a public ceremony.
Anyway, it's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.
I realize some of you're too young for WWII (I know I am), but this is still interesting, isn't it?
Meet the Members - Harry Stuart Wylie
- Date and Place of Birth: 30 March 1940; Parrsboro, NS
- Places Lived: Montreal, Toronto, Windsor, ON and Detroit area
- Schools attended: Mount Allison, Concordia; U of Toronto, U of Windsor, Lawrence Institute of Technology
- Professional qualifications: BSc. Math & Economics: MBA
- Employment: Sales, Marketing & Engineering; President of Hallmark Working Strategies, an Automotive Engineering Support Company.
- Military Service: Lt. In the Hussars
- Interests and hobbies: Society of Automotive Engineers; US Curling Assoc.; Rotary.
- Community service and volunteer activities: Detroit Executive Service Corp; Rotary.
- Family: Wife Arlene (42 years); 1 daughter & 2 sons; 2 granddaughters.
- Residence: 7 months in Ajijic & 5 months in the Gatineau Hills north of Ottawa.
- Retired in 2004
- One is receiving my VFR and then IFR ratings in my 50's.
- A second is volunteer work I did with the Detroit Executive Service Corp tutoring non-profit organizations in strategic planning and conducting meetings with inner-city school children.
- Another is representing the US Curling Association on a 25 day / 41 game excursion to Scotland (we kicked ass and I had to become an American citizen after residing in the US for 28 years).
- A fourth is the broadening my horizons from knowing Dr. Jack Kevorkian, aka Dr. Death. I wrote and had published his biography Between the Dying and the Dead, soon to be an HBO major motion picture. From that was born a new career in writing whereby I hope to have my second book, The Second Fathers of Confederation, published and screen-written.
The summer program is available on the Program Page.