Korea veteran Major-General Claude LaFrance passes away Read the complete story and view all photos at : bit.ly/1tko5CP Major-General (retired) Claude LaFrance, who was born on July 1, 1929, slipped the surly bonds of earth at dawn on Sunday, July 6, 2014, in Cornwall, Ontario. His funeral will be held on July 10, 2014, at the National Military Cemetery at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. Royal Canadian Air Force writer Holly Bridges interviewed Major-General LaFrance and prepared the following article, originally published on the Royal Canadian Air Force website in January 2013. *** It was almost three years after the Second World War when the Royal Canadian Air Force trained its first group of post-war fighter pilots. Among them was a young French Canadian named Claude LaFrance, fresh out of Laval University in his hometown of Quebec City, Quebec. He enrolled in the RCAF in 1947 and, after receiving his wings in 1948 at Centralia, Ontario, flew the DH-100 Vampire – Canada’s first jet fighter. When the Korean War broke out he was instructing on that aircraft at the fighter school in Chatham, New Brunswick The Americans were flying F-86 Sabres in Korea and the school switched to the Sabre in early 1952. So the young instructor was seconded to the United States Air Force (USAF) to gain combat experience. “Before going to Korea, I had to meet the USAF requirement of gaining flying experience on the Sabre for 50 hours and had to do so in one month because I had never flown it before being selected for that secondment,” recalls Major-General LaFrance. (Keep reading ...bit.ly/1tko5CP )
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:16:03 +0000
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