Second World War veteran Sergeant (retired) Tom Franklin, 99, was likely the most senior family member to take advantage of a familiarization flight September 23, as 14 Wing Greenwood opened workspaces to personnel to bring in family for a peek behind the scenes.
Franklin, the father of Aurora Newspaper administrative clerk Diane Mestekemper, was more than happy to take his first flight aboard the CP140 Aurora. After 25 years as a Regular Force instrument technician, plus a number of years as a Class E Reservist, he’d had many opportunities to both work and fly on the Argus, Buffalo, Harvard, Expeditor, Hercules and Neptune.
September 23, Franklin and Mestekemper were met at the Air Movements Unit terminal by famil flight organizers and given a set of headphones so he could listen in on aircrew communications. 415 (Long Range Patrol Force Development) Squadron Lieutenant-Colonel Keith Fugger, also awaiting a famil flight with some of his family members, was happy to chat with Franklin in the waiting room.
Franklin was then escorted first out of the terminal and across the tarmac to the Aurora, where crew awaited the “VIP’s” arrival and assisted him up the stairs and through the aircraft to prime seating at a window jumpseat behind the pilots’ cockpit.
In flight, the Aurora crew showed family members the different parts of the Aurora’s workspace, with many taking turns in the navigator’s centre cockpit seat. Franklin was quick to throw off his seatbelt and take his turn, arriving just in time for the overflight of Cape Split and then along the Bay of Fundy shoreline. He was also able to stay for the landing back at 14 Wing, where he had nothing but a thumbs up for the experience.
Franklin joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at a mobile recruiting unit in Digby in May 1943 – his first paying job, after having worked as a young man on the family farm. He completed basic training in Sydney, and his first posting was to Millidgeville, New Brunswick, where he was barrack warden. In 1945, he was transferred to Gander, Newfoundland, where he finished the war as a leading aircraftman. He retired July 22, 1974 from his final posting in at the search and rescue 413 Squadron in Summerside, having sandwiched in postings in Downsview, Greenwood, Summerside and St. Hubert; and multiple travel opportunities to service aircraft, including Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, Malta, Holland, Greenland and Iceland.
Franklin is currently a resident at the veterans’ unit at Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, where he was the talk of the unit upon his return from the day’s Aurora flight.
