A Drumheller man found love and a career in the Airforce, and his motivation was because it was a tough life being a pipefitter.
Dan Hird had a long career with the Air Force, and it all started when he was in Penhold working as a steamfitter working outside in the cold.
“I was only 17 but I could get into the base and get a drink with the guys. The Air Force guys were telling me what a good life it was, and I was working in 40 below weather,” he recalls. “That’s the life for me! My dad signed the papers to get in. I never looked back.”
Dan Hird Joined the Air Force in 1957, he joined up in Calgary, did his training at St. Jean Quebec. By 1958 he was in Edmonton. He was an aero engine tech.
It was there he found love with another member of the Airforce.
Freda, originally from Victoria joined in 1958 in Calgary. She did her training and was in Edmonton when Dan was serving.
She was a medical assistant. The two met and fell in love. In 1960 they were married. Dan also learned she was to be transferred.
“She got out because they transferred her overseas, and they wouldn’t transfer me with her,” explains Dan.
In 1967 the family was in Trenton when he was deployed to el-Arish in Egypt during the Six-Day War. There he was part of a UN mission and the planes he worked would do recognizance.
Freda went to her mother’s home in Victoria with their three children while he was away. While she was worried, Dan’s mother was even more so.
“It was hilarious. His mother phoned Trenton and said ‘my son is over there,’ and they said ‘he’s fine, we would let you know if something happened,’” she recalls. “I said to her ‘I think they would let me know first!’”
Dan said he was eventually able to call from Lebanon after he was taken out of Egypt.
“The Israelites gave us 24 hours to get out of there. I was on the last airplane leaving and they were bombing the runway,” he said.
He was supposed to be gone for six months, but he was home in two. They hoped they would be transferred to BC, but they remained in Trenton.
From 1968 to 1971 he was stationed in Germany with his family.
“It was good for our kids,” said Freda.
Dan said whenever they got the chance when they were deployed, they would take them to see as much as they could when the opportunity presented itself.
“The teachers said don’t worry about their schooling, because they’re going to learn more about history. So we travelled around to Austria and all over the place.”
He retired from Greenwood Nova Scotia, it was not long after he started his career at the Drumheller Institution.
“I enjoyed every minute of it, the Air Force was really good for me,” said Dan.
