Monday, April 11, 2011

A BIG 'atta boy' to Carl Mills

Post Supplied by: Bill Bishop
Carl Mills served with 2 Wing from 1965 to 1983, retiring as a L/Col.  He was posted to 400 Squadron in the 70's and was with 420 and 2420 Squadrons in London prior to this.  Unbeknownst to many in the Squadron Carl has, on his own, and ably assisted by his wife Sophia, completed a number of projects of great import to our squadron.

Of particular note are 6 completed dioramas (scale models on one-foot square wooden plates) representing either a specific historical event or some aspect of our Squadron's heritage.  I am pleased to feature each of the completed dioramas which have won a first prize, three seconds, and one third when they were entered into hobby contests to seek a form of 'peer review'.  These awards give a reasonable indication as to the quality of  his work.  
To view each of these posts, which include photos, click on the 'Dioramas' in the SUBJECT LIST on the left side of this page. 

Through Carl's diligent and persistent efforts he has recently been successful in finding and repatriating the Squadron's original 110 Squadron Flag from WWII.  This effort was neither easy nor cheap.  To view the post of this remarkable story and view a photo of the flag click the Squadron Flag link.

Some of the other projects Carl has in mind, or various stages of completion are:

The Father of "Downsview In Cyber Space"

Post Supplied by: Bill Bishop
All members of 400 Sqn., 411 Sqn., and 2ARW owe a deep debt of gratitude to Fred Kuzyk for creating and managing the original "Unofficial Site" for members.  He did this when the technology for creating this type of site was in its infancy [2001 to 2009].  Over the years, Fred devoted many, many hours to keeping us connected.

When Gerry Stewart reconnected with me late last year he wondered what had happened to Freddy K's Unoffical 400 site as there had been virtually no activity on the site for quite some time.  As I had lost my photo albums during one of my many moves over the years I asked Gerry to scan and send any photos he had of our squadron days.  This led me to create our current presence in cyber space.

It also led me to get in touch with Fred Kuzyk to let him know what I was planning and to solicit his support for our endeavors.  The assistance Fred has provided has been more than generous.  He has sent me a disk containing all his e-mail addresses, the photos from his now defunct web site, and many of the postings from that site.  Much of this information will be incorporated into our photo site and here on the Propwash Blog.


Fred was kind enough to create and post on his new site "Freddy K's Blog-Off" a message for all previous members of his  site (and new arrivals to this site).  Links to Part 1 and Part 2 of his "Message to the Troops" are shown below.  Both are about 12 mins in length but I believe that anyone interested in the 2ARW family would find both videos entertaining and informative.
Part 1

Part 2


View the OnGuard Series
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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Da Bash - August 10th, 2010

Post Supplied by: Fred Kuzyk & Bill Bishop

Thanks to Fred Kuzyk for this video from his YouTube site showing some of the sights and sounds from our get together at my daughters home in Richmond Hill, Ont.

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