John Regan was born March 22, 1950, in the Channel Islands. His parents were both from there, and had experienced the Second World War firsthand. John’s mother was a teenager, and she endured German occupation during those years; John’s father – a few years older – enlisted in the British military, first as a gunner […]
Major Tyler Wentzell is a currently serving member of the Canadian Forces, one who hails from Nova Scotia. He comes from a family with a military and especially a policing tradition, and as a teenager he worked on an oral history project that involved interviewing some of the same veterans that we have met here […]
Commander Leanne Crowe is a currently serving member of the Canadian Forces; she is on staff at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto and visited Crestwood twice during the 2022-23 school year. She was born in Vancouver in 1964 and grew up in different parts of Canada, including Montreal and Oakville, Ontario. In high school […]
Dallas Willett was born August 3, 1930 in Rouge Hill, Ontario. Third child in a family of 12, he grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression, working the family farm and delivering newspapers when he wasn’t at school or playing soccer or hockey. They would also go into the nearby town of […]
Gord Kowalishen was born February 14, 1950 in Toronto. Gord grew up in 1950s Toronto, against the backdrop of a time of prosperity where new technology such as TV and cars were beginning to affect Canadians’ lifestyles. Gord grew up in the west end of the city, attending school and playing baseball, but when he […]
Ken Villiger was born October 19, 1930 in Montreal, Quebec. He joined the Canadian Forces right out of high school, just as the Cold War was heating up. Ken would see service in Korea, and during his long military career he played on just about every sports team the army had. Ken was a paratrooper […]
Ben Wright was born on July 25, 1946, and he was raised in Texas’s Big Bend country, where he and his siblings grew up in 1950s America. Ben graduated high school in 1964, as American involvement in Vietnam was beginning to escalate. Knowing the draft board would soon be after him, Ben opted for the […]
Georges Branchaud was born June 12, 1941 in Cornwall, Ontario. His father moved the family to Valleyfield, Quebec during the war, in order to work in the war industries that were booming in that city. The family relocated to Ontario later though, and Georges grew up in Cornwall, where he decided to join the navy […]
Major Alexander Prymack is a currently serving member of the Canadian Forces. Born in 1985, he grew up in the Calgary area. His military career began in 2003, when he attended RMC in Kingston, Ontario. From there he became an artillery troop commander and forward observer, and was deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Attention, where […]
Bill Morgan was born April 23, 1925 in Consett, England, a small city on the east coast, not too far from Newcastle. Bill’s mother passed away when he was just five, and at that time he moved in with his grandparents and aunts, and his father’s role in his life diminished. Bill grew up an […]
Diem Marchand-Lafortune is a powerful Plains Cree Horizon-Dancer and Jewish Renaissance woman who describes herself as “Crewish”. Years of work on legal issues related to forced relinquishments of newborns and their disappearance into the system via an inhumane adoption industry came to fruition with the release of Senator Eggleton’s report: This Shame is Ours Canada. She […]
Shawnee Lynn Talbot uses her songs to advocate for queer, Indigenous, youth, and mental health issues. She is an Indigenous Canadian singer who identifies as Two Spirit, meaning that she is fluid with her gender and sexuality. Two Spirit people were once celebrated in Indigenous communities before European settlers colonized North America. Since the Indigenous […]
Chelsea Braybrook was born in the city of Sarnia, Ontario, where she spent the majority of her childhood with her both her parents as well as her younger little brother. She never intended on being a soldier at young age but instead had aspirations of becoming a star like her childhood singing idol Cher. As […]
Lara Jennings was born and raised in Grimsby, Ontario, and lived a sound childhood. She attended a plethora of high schools prior to graduation and deciding to pursue a military path. Jennings studied and graduated from Engineering at RMC prior to her choice of field in the military, which was the airforce. Beginning with regular bootcamp, she […]
Alison Lucas was born in Ottawa to parents that moved around frequently, since her father was in the Air Force. Her mother was an Emergency Room nurse who took a “break” to manage the 3 kids and all the moves. By the time she was in high school, she had moved 8 times, but was […]
LCdr Amber Comisso is a member of Canada’s present day forces, serving her nation in the navy. She visited Crestwood in April 2019, at which time she shared her experiences with Mr. Birrell’s Geography 9 class. She is originally from the GTA, and the military was not in her sights until the time for university […]
Andy Barber is from Montreal, where he grew up during World War Two. Not one for school, he left to find employment in the CN rail yards of Point St-Charles, where he found work as a carman’s apprentice. But the lure of the navy proved strong, and Andy joined up just as the Korean War […]
L Cdr Bill Sanson is a member of the present-day Canadian Forces, serving in the Canadian Navy, where he helps to respond to the many crises where intervention is necessary. As L Cdr Sanson notes, Canada is a maritime nation, and the nature of the interconnected maritime world makes the Canadian Navy very relevant, from […]
Major Olivier Lefrancois joined the Canadian Forces in 1997, having made the decision to attend Royal Military College. After initial training, he was deployed in Quebec, where he helped in the recovery efforts after the ice storm. From there, Major Lefrancois was stationed in different parts of Canada, including North Bay, Resolute Bay and Cold Lake, […]
Major Dias joined the Canadian Forces as a reserve Radio Teletype Operator with 745 (Edmonton) Communication Squadron in 1993. While he was attending the University of Alberta, he was accepted into the Reserve Entry Scheme for Officers and was commissioned in 1996. While at 745 Comm Sqn he served in a variety of positions: Troop […]
John Vassair served in the Canadian Forces during the Cold War era, and as such he participated in a number of peacekeeping missions from the period. Most notably John was deployed in Korea and the Suez in the 50s, during and after the conflicts in both of those nations. As such John followed the actions of the […]
Bill King served in the Canadian Forces from 1951-56. Bill grew up in Nova Scotia, against the backdrop of WW2. He remembers well the sacrifices of other family members who served in that conflict, and he considers them the real veterans. Bill’s service coincided with the Korean War, and although he did not go to […]
Mr. Scott Masters and the Crestwood Social Studies Department have been working on compiling a Historical Archive for several years now. This initiative came into being because of the numerous World War Two Veterans and Holocaust Survivors that have spoken to Mr. Masters’ students. Through their generosity and to make sure that their memories are […]