Gordon Stuart Onishenko
Corporal
Royal Canadian Air Force
Plains of Saskatchewan
Winter turned the prairies into a rugged wasteland of snow and ice, with bone chilling cold that only receded briefly for the few months during which crops could be grown. Harvests would always be bountiful if not for the frequent severe weather and disease which ravished crops. The added economic stagnation in the 1930s only making life more challenging on the barren lands, yet the people living in Saskatchewan were resilient, the trying years forging a generation of men like Gordon Onishenko, who embodied a truly Canadian spirit. The 20-year-old sturdy farmer had worked for everything he called his own, treasuring the occasional hockey and softball games of his youth. Despite the economic struggles of his childhood spent in Canada, he proudly answered the nations call to arms, volunteering with the RCAF reserve in October of 1943. The blue-eyed farmer hoping to take to the sky’s as an airman, initially being posted to Vancouver and then to Manitoba to undertake a 12 week course in gunnery.
Gordon took his training seriously, qualifying for both his gunners and St. John’s Ambulance badges. Yet he was a man caught between two worlds, the RCAF keeping him posted in Canada where he could not help but become anxious to return to the aid of his Ukrainian parents back on their farmstead. With the war progressing towards victory, the RCAF saw to it that the youthful farmer be returned to the fields for a time. Europe was starving and the grains produced in Canada would undeniably be crucial to harvest, though so few young men remained available to assist. Gordon departed for the fields in early 1945, remaining a proud reservist.
Artic Flights
Though the war had passed, the RCAF remained consistently busy, Gordon returning for a stint to help out at Namao base in 1946. His desire to return to military life finally getting the better of him, the 5’7” farmer signing on for active service that fall. In short time the military moved him across the nation to Rockcliffe, Ontario for duty with the 414th Photo Squadron. The RCAF airmen arrived to see the fleet of well-used DC-3 Dakota planes which sat parked on a small airstrip situated in the outskirts of Ottawa. These famous planes though surplus of World War Two, they were tough, which was needed on account of their task being extreme. The squadron assigned to an expedition intended to photograph the entirety of Canada’s claim to the artic. This meant hours spent flying over some of the most remote portions of the country in often unpleasant weather. Such a task was necessary on account of concerns regarding continued U.S. territorial encroachment in the north, though truthfully Canada didn’t even have a record of the many small pieces of land spread here to reference, which is why the surveys were needed (1).
Courageous, cold, and perhaps a bit crazy, the airmen flew missions over the barren artic wasteland, using the specialty photography equipment on the plane to capture images of places formerly witnessed by very few in the world (2). Sorties were frequent during the limited flyable months, artic conditions proving too much for even the reliable DC-3 to handle at certain points in the season (2). Gordon served with the unit for the bulk of it's existence, before transferring to Goose Bay, Labrador for transport duty. The remote airbase was in fact part of the artic mass he was now overly familiar with, the cold even more severe there than what he had grown accustom to enduring in Saskatchewan. |
Canadian Jets
As distinct as it was loud, the humming of the jetfighter engines of the Canadian produced Mk.2 Sabre gave off the impression of strength and modernity. These planes were the future, some of the early jetfighters which rapidly were replacing the prop planes that Corporal Onishenko had first trained with. The opportunity to stay with the 439th Squadron and their fighter jets as they moved into combat readiness positions in Luffenham, England was an exciting prospect. Yet the housing troubles which awaited Gordon and his new wife, Doreen, were less appealing. The young couple learning to call a trailer their home, the rudimentary housing being the best that could be provided with the sudden influx of some 200 Canadian personnel and their families (3). It was quaint and perhaps left much to be desired, but enabled Gordon to be on the cutting edge of the RCAF in 1952, the squadron directly representing the nation as part of the NATO forces positioned to respond to potential threats from the USSR (4).
His family gladly traded their trailer home in England for a relocation to Baden-Soellingen in West Germany where Gordon was attached to the No.4 Fighter Wing. For several years the proud Corporal served with the formation, proving the quality of Canada’s personnel and establishing the RCAF as a key partner to both the USAF and RAF (4). His return home in 1955 brought about other duties and in 1958 the veteran Corporal accepted his final discharge, proudly bearing a Canadian Forces Decoration for his service. |
Sources:
(1) “414 Squadron.” Royal Canadian Air Force Association, 13 June 2020, www.rcafassociation.ca/heritage/history/post-second-world-war-rcaf/414-squadron/.
(2) Taylor, Neil. “Mapping the Canadian North – Post WWII.” Alberta Aviation Museum, 12 Nov. 2019, albertaaviationmuseum.com/2019/10/23/mapping-the-canadian-north-post-wwii/.
(3) Edmonton Journal, 23 Oct. 1952.
(4) Frandsen, Bertram Charles. “The Rise and Fall of Canada's Cold War Air Force, 1948-1968.” Wilfrid Laurier University, 2015. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2857&context=etd
(1) “414 Squadron.” Royal Canadian Air Force Association, 13 June 2020, www.rcafassociation.ca/heritage/history/post-second-world-war-rcaf/414-squadron/.
(2) Taylor, Neil. “Mapping the Canadian North – Post WWII.” Alberta Aviation Museum, 12 Nov. 2019, albertaaviationmuseum.com/2019/10/23/mapping-the-canadian-north-post-wwii/.
(3) Edmonton Journal, 23 Oct. 1952.
(4) Frandsen, Bertram Charles. “The Rise and Fall of Canada's Cold War Air Force, 1948-1968.” Wilfrid Laurier University, 2015. https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2857&context=etd