A Glance at a Summerside Female Air Force Recruit
One young Summerside woman who joined the forces was Elaine Gallant. In an interview with Lowell Huestis of the CJRW Radio program
"Those Were the Days" she told of her war experience. The interview was done in the 1980s. Elaine joined the forces in 1941
because she "needed a job." She wanted to join the army or navy as she liked their uniforms but at the time they were not taking
anyone under the age of twenty-one. Thus, she joined the air force and was sent to Toronto for basic training. Elaine was looking
forward to seeing the world and was eager for her first posting. When it came it was to RCAF Station Summerside as a Parachute Rigger and
Fabric Worker. The job title was later changed to Safety Equipment Worker. Elaine fixed and packed parachutes. She tells the
story of a man coming in to her work area one day with a soaking wet parachute. He had to jump from his plane and landed in
Malpeque Bay. He brought the parachute back to Elaine since she had packed it; she was very happy to see it had worked. The part of
her work she really enjoyed was when she was posted to repair depot.
"There we really worked on the aircraft. A lot of the training aircraft had the fuselage (skin) of the aircraft made of duck
(strong linen or cotton) fabric- the Anson was one. They would get big rips and tears in them and we would have to sew and patch
them. In order to do so you had to take off all the paint and guck on them and sew them up and then paint them all over again.
So you really felt like you were doing a man's work. It felt like you were helping out the war and all that stuff. You didn't
feel much like a woman - you ran around with coveralls all day that fit like a bag."
Since Elaine was stationed back in her hometown she put in for an overseas posting. It was granted - to Newfoundland. She found
it most discouraging.
