Warriors is the story of a Canadian fighter pilot whose operational
flying career ended with his introduction to a headquarters staff
job. He was engaged in the Cold War from his youth through an
ever-changing career path.
His military account begins as a raw recruit and the most junior
member of the air force. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken
through the author's career progression as a radar technician, his
remuster to commissioned officer status and his training as a pilot
in the air force. His experiences as a fighter pilot provide the
layman an inside look at "the right stuff" and the thrills of
operational flying combined with a complete season of formation
aerobatics in a Mach 2 fighter aircraft.
The author leads us through his uneasy transition to staff officer
and his development in that role. He relates his three-year posting
into the pilot training establishment and his participation in the
eventual formation of the Snowbirds aerobatic team.
In his final tour at National Defence Headquarters the author was
in a position to witness first hand the deterioration of the
military culture at the highest levels. He relates his struggles to
maintain some semblance of military ethic in the routine conduct of
his duties under ever deteriorating circumstances.
This book puts the Cold War into a perspective as seen by those who
lived through it. It identifies the 9/11 tragedy as the beginning
of a new and frightening era. It recognises the World Trade Centre
act of terrorism as a wake up call for a country that has allowed
it's politicians while looking inward, to savage defence budgets
over the past thirty years all the while watching it's once
proudmilitary services atrophy.
This book that will be of interest to students of military and
strategic studies and to the average observer of Canadian defence
and foreign policy. Praise for WARRIORS AND THE BATTLE WITHIN The
first point that struck me personally was that your military
service paralleled mine. I agree with you that these were the best
years to serve, given the Cold War and very viable Armed Forces
(strength as high as 115, 000). Like you, I retired early at 53
rather than 55 years of age for exactly the same reasons you did.
Another similarity was that we joined as private/airman, an
invaluable experience in my opinion. Final point, your book
certainly fills a niche in the Cold War Historiography.
William Bentley Macleod Colonel (ret'd) OMM, CD - Kingston, Ontario
When Terry Thompson joined the RCAF as a small-town prairie boy in
April of 1951, he had no idea of the adventure that lay ahead.
Following a stint as a ground radar technician, he applied and was
accepted as an aircrew candidate and began pilot training at
Penhold, Alta, in Feb 1953.
Over a longflying career, Thompson flew a variety of fighter
aircraft, notably the CF-100 interceptor, the Hawker Hunter and the
English Electric Lightning during an exchange tour with the RAF
which included a season with the 56 Sqn Firebirds aerobatic team.
He also flew the F-86 Sabre, the CF-5 Freedom Fighter, and the
Tutor jet trainer as an instructor and standards officer at CFB
Moose Jaw, Sask.
But this book is more than just another "there I was at 30,000
feet" opus. Terry Thompson spent two ground tours at National
Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) in Ottawa, the first when the Wars of
Unification were being fought in the hallways during the late 1960s
(hence the book's title). Having a front row seat on the
internecine skirmishes in progress was instructive, and the author
takes us into the inner workings of a headquarters being
traumatized not just with defence minister Paul Hellyer's
unification plan, but also with the civilianisation of NDHQ imposed
by an anti-military prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
During his second tour and terminal posting at NDHQ, from 1974 to
1981, and now a lieutenant colonel, Thompson saw the fruits of the
seeds that Trudeau and Hellyer had sown. He writes: "For the RCAF
the sky had indeed fallen. This new integrated service was no
longer one with which I could identify. As the forces fuelling the
Cold War began to sputter, the military imperative was lost and in
my last few years I began to notice how the operation of the
headquarters now resembled any of the other government departments.
"The uniqueness of the military had been carefully blended into the
fabric of the Ottawa bureaucracy. The colourful characteristics of
former fine leaders hadgiven way to the grey prominence of the new
breed of civil servant. Essentially a civil servant in uniform who,
once assigned his little piece of turf would defend it to the death
in the mistaken belief he was fulfilling his role in the military
chain of command."
It is a sentiment shared by many RCAF old-timers.
Vic Johnson, AirForce Magazine Cal Annis, Calgary
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