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:
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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:
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| 1974-1975 |
Various training bases in Canada
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| 1975-1979 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Shearwater,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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| 1979-1983 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen,
West Germany with
NATO
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| 1983-1984 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Portage-la-Prairie,
Manitoba,
Canada
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| 1984-1984 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Summerside,
Prince Edward Island,
Canada
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| 1984-1985 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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| 1985-1989 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Comox,
Vancouver Island,
British Columbia,
Canada
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| 1989-1990 |
Canadian Forces Base CFB Greenwood,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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Canadian Armed Forces bases undergoing training:
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Borden,
Ontario,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Cold Lake,
Alberta,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Cornwallis,
Nova Scotia,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Edmonton,
Alberta,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Kingston,
Ontario,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFS Penhold,
Red Deer,
Alberta,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Toronto
(Downsview),
Ontario,
Canada
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Winnipeg,
Manitoba,
Canada
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Maps of some of the above places (work in progress)
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Deployments in Canada:
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Canadian Forces Base CFS Inuvik,
Northwest Territories,
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Montréal,
Québec,
Canada
(1976 Summer Olympics)
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Canadian Forces Base CFS St. John's
(Torbay),
Newfoundland,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories,
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Cambridge Bay,
Victoria Island,
Northwest Territories
(now Nunavut),
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Frobisher Bay
(now Iqaluit),
Baffin Island
Northwest Territories
(now Nunavut),
Canada
(NORPATs)
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Prince Rupert,
British Columbia,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
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Sandpit,
Queen Charlotte Islands,
British Columbia,
Canada
(FISHPATs)
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Maps of some of the above places (work in progress)
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Deployments in the USA:
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Lockheed Burbank
(Skunk Works),
Hollywood Burbank Airport,
California,
USA
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US Air Force Base Ellsworth AFB,
Rapid City,
South Dakota,
USA
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US Air Force Base Seymour Johnson AFB,
Goldsboro,
North Carolina,
USA
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US Coast Guard Air Station Sitka,
Alaska,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Adak,
Aleutian Islands,
Alaska,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Barbers Point,
Oahu,
Hawaii,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Moffett Field,
San Francisco,
California,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS North Island,
San Diego,
California,
USA
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US Naval Air Station NAS Willow Grove,
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
USA
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Deployments worldwide:
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Attachments in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):
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1982 Canadian Starfighters Air Demonstration Team
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Deployments and Air Shows flown in Europe (while stationed for 4 years in West Germany with NATO):
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Belgian Air Foce Base Kleine Brogel,
Belgium
(operational)
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Baden-Söllingen,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 1994)
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Canadian Forces Base CFB Lahr,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 1994)
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French Air Foce Base Dijon-Longvic,
France
(decommissioned and closed 2016)
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Royal Air Force Base RAF Fairford,
Gloucestershire,
England
(operational)
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Toulouse–Blagnac Airport (Airbus),
France
(operational)
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US Air Force Base RAF Mildenhall,
Suffolk,
England
(operational)
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US Air Force Base Bitburg AFB,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 1994)
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US Air Force Base Ramstein AFB,
West Germany
(operational)
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US Air Force Base Rhein-Main AFB,
Frankfurt Airport,
West Germany
(operational)
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US Air Force Base Sembach AFB,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 2012)
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US Air Force Base Spangdahlem AFB,
West Germany
(operational)
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US Air Force Base Wiesbaden AFB,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 1992)
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US Air Force Base Zweibrücken AFB,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 1991)
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West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Jever,
West Germany
(decommissioned and closed 2013)
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West Germany Luftwaffe (Air Force) Base Nörvenich,
West Germany,
(operational)
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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...
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.png "De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter")
.png "De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter")
