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In fact,
during the next three years we won more regional and
national sports titles than any other base within the
Canadian Forces by a wide margin. He gave the staff
and athletes tons of support and encouragement at
every step. In a pretty short period, Trenton became
known as the “Base of Champions”. Returning Trenton
champion athletes could expect to be met at the AMU by
their Base Commander on a red carpet to waiting
open-air convertibles, which paraded them around the
base to well wishers and a social reception fitting
national champions.
In a
letter to the Trenton Contact, January 29, 1986,
Brigadier-General AWD Garlick, Director General
Personnel Services, wrote:”In reviewing the 1985 CF
Sport’s Championships, my staff at DPERA brought to my
attention the remarkable success of CFB Trenton on the
region and national sports scene.” “In the past year
your base won three national and eight regional team
championships. “As far as we can determine, this
represents the most successful sport’s year by a CFB
since integration.” Of course, with winning comes
pressure. Every once in awhile he would pull a
"George" on me and I would get my marching orders, no
'ifs ands or buts'. He never did fire me (aka George
Steinbrenner did to Billy Martin, a couple of times)
even though he did threatened me on a regular basis.
In the
opinion, of a whole lot of people, he ran a great base
with high morale. In particular, he connected with
the “other ranks” like no other Colonel I’ve known
before or since and they knew that they had his
unremitting support. By his own admission, one of his
most valued possessions is a picture of himself with
all the CWO's on the base with the caption: "To Sky
King, the Airman's General."
1984 was a special year for CFB
Trenton. The Commander of Air Command at the time,
3528 General Paul Manson, (RMC ’56) issued a challenge
to his Base Commanders to do "something special" to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the
RCAF. This was right in Sky King's wheel-house. We
had a Battle of Britain parade that had the longest
'frontage' in the history of the base. He inspected
the troops standing in the back of a jeep!!
He
also decided that Trenton should be the
home of an RCAF Museum. From its humble beginnings in
the Base Library, located in the Recreation Centre, it
has become a huge complex that is now the largest RCAF
Museum in the country. On April 1st, 1984,
Sky invited Air Chief Marshal Sir David Evans, RAF, to
cut the ribbon at the opening ceremonies. ACM Evans
is the only Canadian to ever reach the rank of four
stars in the Royal Air Force. He was Sky's boss
during a three-year exchange tour at Strike Command in
High Wycombe, UK. 1984 proved to be one big wall to
wall year of special events commemorating the 60th.
As great as “George” was as a Base
Commander he was not without his faults. As a second
year CFR Captain, it was always a challenge for
"Billy", when this RMC graduate, now a Colonel, who
fancied himself as an all round athlete provided
"direction" to the Base Sports program. Failing to
follow-up with a "suggestion" from “George” was never
an option for “Billy”.
“Sky King,
Bay of Quinte Rink” ~ Click on picture for larger view
For example, he "insisted" that an
outdoor rink on the Bay of Quinte would be ideal for
outdoor social activities and pick-up shinny for the
troops. I suppose it was because he grew up in rural
Saskatchewan that he had this "thing" about outdoor
rinks. To the chagrin of a doubting PERI staff it was
built. He declared a “Sports Afternoon” for those
wishing to use the new outdoor rink. Who wouldn’t
want to skate outdoors on a nice January day?
Especially when they were offered time off work to do
so! After the first big Sports Afternoon, other than
him, no one else much used it! The Sky King, Bay of
Quinte
Skating Rink lasted one winter!
On
the flip side, just one of the many great memories is
the CFB Trenton Day (Blue Jay Baseball) in Toronto.
Colonel Sky King throwing out the ceremonial first
pitch to Buck Martinez. This was before a “standing
room only crowd” which included over 700 Trentonians.
Three Base Hercules doing a fly-past (not much higher
then a George Bell fly ball) over the infield; a
military band providing pre-game music for the fans;
and Dianne Carr, a base school teacher singing the
national anthem; all added class & excitement to the
event. By the way, his pitching was much like his
tennis – high & away - although he insists he threw a
strike!
Of course, Trenton has had a number of
great Base Commanders over the years, both before and
after the Sky King tenure. I was fortunate to have
served with two other good ones. K.O. Simondson and
6527 Gordon Diamond sandwiched him between 1982 & 1987
(my tour in Trenton). Come to think of it, all three
of them made it to the rank of Brigadier-General which
may say something about the calibre of airmen /
airwomen who were stationed there during that time
period.
Born in
Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in 1941, Garry King
grew up working on his Dad's farm and helping out with
the John Deere dealership in town. He knew that he
wanted to be a pilot but his Dad insisted on an
education. RMC was the obvious answer.
He will be the first to admit that he
was 'on the ropes' academically trying to adjust to an
Ontario university from a Saskatchewan high school
curriculum. He contributes a broken leg-playing
hockey as the main reason he passed first year. He
wrote his final exams in July when everyone else was
off on summer training. The 'sympathy factor' was
high among the RMC professors!
Garry
gained considerable notoriety when he finally got out
of the Canadian Forces Hospital. He was issued a cane
to help him walk, which he dutifully used to go to
class, to the mess hall and 'on pass' in Kingston, for
his entire second year. The only other 'cane' on
campus belonged to the Chief Librarian, Mr. Spurr.
Comparisons were inevitable and Garry could be seen,
on occasion, walking behind Mr. Spurr, doing a very
good impersonation.
Since Garry's hockey career was
abruptly curtailed with the broken femur, he spent
third and fourth year playing tennis for the RMC team
and skipping the college curling team. The legendary
Mr. Cliff Watt was the team's staff advisor.
On graduation, Garry's career
progression was typical of most wannabee pilots.
At some
point early in his career, Garry became Sky. He isn't
certain, but he thinks it was in Centralia, learning
to fly the Chipmunk. The moniker was hung on him by
his mates and stuck.
He received his wings in June, 1964,
winning the flying trophy on Course 6301. He was
selected for the CF-104 Starfighter programme and
found himself in Marville, France, in September 1965,
on 441 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.
This was
the beginning of a love affair with an airplane, 441
squadron and Europe. He would spend 12 of the next 22
years of his career in different locations and
assignments in NATO Europe.
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Sky King has one more take-off
than landing in his log-book. While on exchange with
the Danish Air Force in Karup, Denmark, July 1967, he
was forced to eject from his CF-104. At 300 feet and
420 knots on the dials, Sky crashed into a sea gull
over the Kattegat a couple of miles off the coast of
Denmark. The sequence of events from his ejection and
a very brief three seconds in the parachute to rescue
30 minutes later by a Danish Sea King helicopter, is
quite incredible, to say the least. Trouble with his
mae west, losing his dinghy, fighting hypothermia and
an angry sea, all contributed to a very intense half
hour.
The
story has a happy and incredible ending. When he was
winched up to the waiting helicopter, the pilot came
back to see the soaked and shaking victim lying on the
stretcher and immediately became very excited. As it
turns out, they were best friends during training in
Canada. In those days, Canada trained Danish and
Norwegian pilots to wings standard. Ova Stolle and
Sky King were best friends. On graduation, they shook
hands and said, "see you next time." Well, the next
time, was during a life-saving moment in a helicopter
off the coast of Denmark.
This story and other exploits of Sky King are told in
considerable detail in three books:
"Pilots" by John Melady, Canadian
Stories from the Cockpit
"Starfighter" by David Bashow, a loving
retrospective of the CF-104 era in Canadian fighter
aviation 1961-1986
"Fighter
Squadron" by Larry Milberry, 441 Squadron from
Hurricanes to Hornets.
These
three books are very entertaining reads and highly
recommended.
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Authors, i) David Bashow; ii) Larry
Milberry; iii) John Melady |
Note:
Lt. Col David Bashow is well known around RMC, and is
currently on staff as an Assistant Professor with the
History Department. Larry Milberry is a recent
inductee into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in
recognition of his contribution to the history of
Canadian Aviation with his impressive list of
publications over the past 25 years. John Melady is a
well-known author and school teacher in Brighton.
During
Sky's first tour in Europe, he gained a reputation as
one of the top tactical recce pilots of the day. He
progressed quickly to squadron training officer and
then tactical evaluation officer. He has many
interesting stories of chasing new pilots around
low-level Europe and turning them around before they
crossed into East Germany or Switzerland.
As a
young Airman, I served at 4 (F) Wing when the
CF 104s were introduced to the RCAF in Europe around
1963. During my time at Baden we lost a number of
great pilots. “The pilots either loved the
Starfighter or were afraid of it.” “It was
unforgiving if you made a mistake, didn't like going
slow, was a dream at low level in turbulence, and the
most photogenic aircraft ever built,” according to Sky
King. The “stats” back him up. Canada crashed 110
out of a total of 200 built by Canadair in Montreal.
The RCAF / CF lost 37 pilots in the process.
 Sky
King feels fortunate that he was one of a handful of
pilots that cross-pollinated to other flying
disciplines. After five years on Starfighters in
Europe he had a short tour on 435 Squadron, Edmonton,
flying the C-130 Hercules, then took command of 440
Search and Rescue Squadron flying the Twin Otter.
 This
was especially challenging for him since the Twin
Otter had a maximum flying speed that was less than
the take-off speed of a CF-104 and the landing gear
was down and welded!
His
exchange tour with the RAF as a LCOL was very
rewarding for him. Strike Command Headquarters, in
High
Wycombe, also was the home of CINCUKAIR and ACM Evans
was the commander of both formations. This Canadian
pilot spent considerable time 'below ground' in
simulated war conditions during the intense cold war
days in Europe. “The bunker was actually the original
bunker where ACM Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris
orchestrated his famous bombing raids on Germany
during WW II.” “The only difference was the fact that
the
young airwomen with croupier rakes had been replaced
by bulky, early generation computers”, said Sky with
that devilish gleam in his eyes.
When he
took over CFB Trenton in 1983 he got checked out on
the Buffalo, flying search and rescue with 424
Squadron. He claims to have had every emergency in
the book on this aircraft. He says that there was no
requirement for a flight simulator for the Buffalo
since every trip had emergency training anyway. He
also flew the Boeing 707 and enjoyed every minute. In
his words, “especially the global trainers”!!
In 1989-90, while
experiencing significant turmoil in both his
professional and personal life he opted for early
retirement and
started his own company Skyworks Inc. This
has turned out to be a very happy and rewarding
chapter in his life. He helps airports around the
world build their passenger and air cargo business.
Client airports have included JFK in New York; Guam,
Micronesia; Gdansk, Poland; Genoa, Italy; Denver,
Corpus Christi, Reno, Albuquerque, Sacramento and
Oshkosh. Currently, he is working under contract for
Canada's largest airport, Pearson International.
The King
family lives in Edmonton. Sky is married to Krystyne
and they have a 14-year-old daughter, Meagan. Young
Meg is a huge part of his life. She is a member of
Canada's national rhythmic gymnastics team and travels
extensively to competitions. She has her eyes on the
Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Meg is the gymnast,
Krystyne is the taxi driver and Sky pays the bills.
Life is good!
He rates
his Trenton years as the best in his military career,
right behind the 12 years in Europe!! For most of his
career he was better known in the German Air Force,
USAF Europe, RAF and the various NATO headquarters
scattered across Western Europe than his own air
force. But he does have a special affection for his
time in Trenton.
Garry “Sky” King has had a profound
influence on a number of folks connected with the
military over the years. When I started making phone
calls to mutual friends for help with this article,
many were quick to point out a tid bit here & there
and how he had done something very special for them as
individuals. On a personal note, I have a true
friend, and I am a better man for it.
These days, “George” keeps himself busy
globetrotting to airports in different parts of the
world. Ex Cadets, old air force buddies, and friends
may catch up with him at
skyworksinc@shaw.ca
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