With Thanks to 12215 Dave “Farley” Mowat

To probably no one’s surprise, the best recruiters for the Canadian Forces have been parents who previously served in the military, so it was no different for the military colleges.  As it turns out my line mate on the RMC hockey team, Al MacLeod, he at center and I on left wing, both grew up as military brats, our fathers having flown together on the Argus in Greenwood.  My father, “Mutt” Mowat was a pilot and Al’s father “Black Doug” MacLeod was a navigator in the 1960s. In fact, we soon inherited some of that military sense of humour as well, to wit Al used to call our line the Penguin Line, i.e., no wings, but not to be outdone myself and our right winger referred to our line as the “Donut Line”, i.e., no center. 

Al’s Dad was in fact a bit of a legend within the RCAF maritime aviation community because he was such a character.  Notwithstanding his great sense of humour, he was very good at his job by all accounts.  In fact, I remember Al and I not having much luck trying to get home to Nova Scotia for Christmas after the fall term at RMC one year.  After several flights were cancelled because of snowstorms, and with the prospects dimming by the hour, Doug managed to track down a Herc flight coming back to Greenwood from Trenton so Al and I and the other Bluenosers all loaded on to that flight. It was a pretty a bumpy ride but hey, all we cared about was getting home for the holidays and were very thankful for the “lift”. 

Although sometimes it is hard to separate fact from fiction, one of the best stories I heard about “Black Doug” not surprisingly had to do with parades, something no one in either family was particularly fond of.  As the story goes, during one inspection, the commanding officer stops in front of Doug and glances down at his dull and dusty black shoes.  The CO then looks up with visible disappointment and asks incredulously “F/O McLeod, are those your best shoes?!?”.  When Doug respectfully responds “No, sir”, the exasperated officer asks him “Then why in heaven’s name aren’t you wearing them?”  Doug pauses for a second and says” Well, sir, because my best shoes are brown”.