Community InvolvementThe decision to include various Alberta locations in the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) took the province by
storm. Today, most of the aircraft are long gone and some of
the bases are overgrown or have been returned to farmland,
but although one may not see it, the BCATP had a profound
effect on this province and the communities that hosted the
bases.
Similar
to many prairie communities, Alberta was having difficulties
recovering from the Great Depression and terrible drought of the 1930s. An infusion of federal
spending that came with a training base was definitely welcome
and served to stimulate stagnant local economies. The arrival
of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) gave a definite boost
to local commerce and business owners were more than happy
to satisfy the needs of the influx of people. It became
rather common to see businesses directing their advertising
toward the RCAF.
Members of the community were hired in a number of
capacities to get the Plan off the ground. Some were
involved in the construction of bases, fashioning runways,
barracks and hangars. Others were hired to work at the bases
themselves, filling positions from aircrew instructors to
cooks as well as everything in between. While the RCAF
brought their own personnel to each of the bases, they could
not have run the Plan without the help of community members.
An undertaking of the magnitude of the BCATP required the
participation and cooperation of a lot of people. All of a
sudden, where jobs were previously scarce, almost anyone who
wanted work could find employment.
The
economic changes were only one of the effects of the Plan.
A social shift occurred as well. Aircrew trainees arrived
in droves, all of them with one thing in common: they were
a long way from home. While every day duties were considerably
different from civilian life, when
all of the work was done, life on the base became reminiscent
of "normal" life. Recreational activities were organized
and those training at the bases began to associate with
members of the outlying community. Some trainees made lifelong
friends, others met their future wives and others still
simply dropped in to a local home for supper and family
camaraderie. At the end of each training session, when a
new class of graduates was awarded wings and posted onward,
goodbyes must have been difficult and heartfelt, but all
left with the memory of the training base they had been
stationed at and the small community they probably would
never have been to otherwise.
After the war, some men were drawn back to Alberta—some
by the discovery of a beautiful patch of land they did not
want to live without, and others to a
sweetheart with whom they would begin their new life. They
came back, because some time during their training, they had
found something that felt like home.
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