Michael Czuboka Remembers

Related Collection: Virtual Manitoba (Miscellaneous)

My father, who, along with thousands of other Ukrainians, was unjustly interred by Canadian authorities during WWI, managed to secure employment as a section labourer with the Canadian National Railways during the 1930s. We moved to Rivers in 1937 and I entered Grade 1 at the Rivers Consolitated School that same year. Rivers was an important divisional point on the CNR and most of its residents were railway employees and their families. WWII broke out in 1939 and construction on an air base at Rivers began shortly afterwards.

During the war years the airport at Rivers was a part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and its facilities were used primarily by Avro Ansons for the purpose of training navigators. I remember the drone of airplane engines almost every evening during the early 1940s. It was an exciting time. Crashes were frequent. Airman from Britain, Australia and New Zealand who were killed in these crashes were buried in the Rivers cemetery.

fter the war ended Rivers continued as a military base and was eventually called the “Canadian Joint Air Training Centre” or “CJATC” because all three services trained there. All military parachute training in Canada at that time took place in Rivers and Shilo. The base’s recreational facilities, with a large gymnasium, bowling alley and swimming pool were superior to those we had in the town of Rivers. Brooke School at the base, beginning in the early 1950’s, enrolled students from the town, including brother Bill, as well as from CJATC. I was impressed and envious of these facilities. As a young boy, I greatly admired all of the soldiers, sailors and airmen that I saw, and I seriously considered a military career. An opportunity opened when the Korean War broke out in 1950. I quickly enlisted.

After I returned from serving with 2 PPCLI in the Korean War, I completed a parachute course at Rivers and Shilo. I was then stationed at Calgary. During the last year of my army service, during 1953-54, I was posted to the Airborne School at Rivers. One of my jobs at the Airborne School was working with the Personnel Officer. The Chief of the Defence Staff was concerned because of the high failure rate of people taking parachute training, also called “the jump course”. I gave a modified version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality test to incoming parachute trainees to see if it could identify potential failures. Eureka! After administering the test to a large number of parachute trainees, I discovered that one item was significant: “I am afraid of heights”. People who failed the jump course were afraid of heights! I don’t know how, or if, this discovery was ever used, because in the fall of 1954 I left the army and enrolled at Brandon College.

PART I: JOINING THE SPECIAL FORCE FOR KOREA:

I was born in Brandon, Manitoba to Ukrainian immigrant parents in 1931. My father, a CN section labourer, like thousands of other Ukrainians, was unjustly interned by Canadian authorities during WWI simply because he was classified as a citizen of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, an enemy of Britain and Canada during that world war. The Ukrainians, ironically, had come to Canada to gain freedom from an oppressive and foreign regime. I believe that my father wanted his three sons to be good Canadians, but that he was probably never able to overcome his belief that he was an unwanted foreigner in Canada. If he had lived long enough, he would certainly have been proud of the fact that all three of his sons, Walter, Bill and Mike, would eventually became commissioned officers in the Canadian Forces. It is certainly true that I, as a young man, needed to prove that I was a good Canadian and that this was one of the reasons I joined the Canadian Army in 1950.

In the summer of 1950 I was an 18 year old construction labourer living in Rivers, Manitoba, a CN Railway town, and working on renovation projects at the nearby Canadian Joint Air Training Centre. I had earlier graduated with a Grade 12 “senior matriculation” standing, but jobs were scarce and I considered myself fortunate to have employment of any kind. I wanted to further my studies with a university degree in either arts or science, but neither my parents nor I had any money for that purpose.

I had grown up in Rivers and I was impressed by the young soldiers, sailors and airmen who served at CJATC, and especially those who wore wings. While attending high school in Rivers I became an air cadet, gained military experience by attending summer camps at air force bases, and was promoted to sergeant, the highest cadet rank in #320 Rivers Squadron. My older brother Walter, as a Flying Officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force, had completed 52 air missions over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe during WWII and I admired him greatly. I had been too young to serve in the war and I felt that I had been left out of a great and exciting historical event. A military career greatly appealed to me and the Korean War would eventually give me a chance for the kind of an adventure that I had missed during WWII because of my youth.

The Korean War broke out in June, 1950, and later in that summer the Canadian Government announced that it would recruit a “Special Force” for the purpose of serving in the war. What was especially appealing to many recruits about this force was its limited 18 month period of service. In those days, those who enlisted in the Canadian Forces were usually required to enlist for at least three years. Moreover, it was practically impossible to get out earlier than three years. It was almost like being in the French Foreign Legion. You signed your life and freedom away. The Canadian Army, in those days, was lacking in sensitivity and human relations skills. Soldiers did not have any “rights” as we know them today. You were required to obey all orders without questions of any kind. It was a joke but also a reality when lieutenants, or sergeants, or even corporals said: “I need three volunteers to go on a dangerous patrol and I have decided that the volunteers will be you, you and you”.

In early August, 1950, shortly after the Special Force enlistments began at recruiting depots across Canada, I decided to travel from Rivers to Fort Osborne in Winnipeg, a distance of about 125 miles, in order to join up. But how would I get there? My funds were limited. Fortunately, I knew a CN Railway fireman and he smuggled me into a caboose at the end of a freight train going to Winnipeg. I arrived full of enthusiasm but was initially rejected because of my age.

“How old are you?” the recruiting officer asked skeptically. “You look like you are about 15!”

” I know that I look younger, but I am 18 years old” I truthfully replied.

“That’s too young to be in the Special Force” he said. “You have to be at least 19. Go home and come again when you are 19”.

I did go back to Rivers but I returned to Fort Osborne about two weeks later and hesitatingly, and with considerable trepidation, told another recruiting officer that I was 19 years old. He did not look at me too closely and did not seem to care. I was a warm body and the army was not too particular. I was never asked for a birth certificate or documentation of any kind, either then or ever. I aged by one year instantaneously and was immediately enrolled, at my request, into the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. I wanted adventure, and the infantry was the place to get it.

On August 22, 1950, at about the time I was scheduled to travel by train to the PPCLI in Calgary, Canada’s railway workers went on strike. The problem was solved by the Royal Canadian Air Force. I, along with other recruits from Winnipeg’s Osborne Barracks, were loaded onto C-47 Dakota aircraft and flown to Calgary. We arrived, a lot of us sick and vomiting because of a bumpy ride on a hot August day, and were immediately housed at Currie Barracks. Unfortunately, the Army was not ready to receive us and we languished for many days in our civilian clothing. Finally, in about mid-September, we were equipped with WWII vintage uniforms, webbing, kit bags, boots, mess tins, and .303 Lee Enfield rifles. Shortly afterwards we were shipped to Wainwright, Alberta, to undergo basic training. Our training was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel “Big Jim” Stone, the CO of 2 PPCLI and Brigadier John Rockingham, commander of the 25th Infantry Brigade. Both officers had had served with distinction in WWII. In fact, most of our senior non-commissioned and commissioned officers were veterans of the war that had ended only about five years earlier.

Military Years

My brother, Bill Czuboka, was born in Winnipeg in 1935. He grew up and went to elementary school at Rivers. He attended Brooke High School at CJATC and has many photos of this period in his life.

He served in the Canadian Army for 35 years. During most of his career he was a map-maker. He also worked on decorations for the Canadian Forces during the last part of his career. He retired as a captain.

He has done a lot of work for the Canadian Legion in Rivers. This work included retrieving and storing the photos of all Rivers residents who served in the wars of the last century.

He also photographed the graves of all Commonweath airmen who accidentally died and were buried at Rivers and Brandon during their training at Rivers and Brandon during WWII.

Bill now lives in Ottawa.

Brother Walter Czuboka was a product of the British Air Commonwealth Air Training Plan, although he did not train at Rivers. He was a wireless airgunner. He was near the top of his class and was promoted to a commission as soon as he graduated. Walter completed 52 air missions over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe during WWII.

Education Years in Rivers and Brandon

I took Grade 12 at Brandon College in 1949-50 because Rivers did not have a Grade 12. I returned to Brandon College in 1954 after four years in the army and graduated with a B.A. in 1957. I taught history courses at Brandon College on a part-time basis from 1960 to 1965. I had to discontinue teaching at Brandon College because I was appointed principal of Neelin High School and no longer had enough time to do both.I organized a Brandon College 1950s reunion which took place in Brandon in October. We had a great time. I consider Rivers and Brandon to be my home towns. I was the principal of Neelin High School from 1965 to 1969, after which I became a superintendent of schools for 21 years.