260285 Col. John Ross Austin Royal Canadian Air Force No. 51 Operations Training Unit from:Merritton, Ontario, Canada John Austin enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in early 1943 and trained as a Wireless/Air Gunner and Navigator in Canada. He arrived in England on the first troopship to arrive from Canada after D-Day. He was selected for training as a Radar Operator and trained in 51 OTU until shortly after VE Day.
He returned to Canada to await the possibility of service in the Pacific Theatre, and the war ended in August 1945. The RCAF offered to send him to the University of Toronto with the possibility of a permanent Commission after graduation. He graduated from Toronto in June of 1949 and re-entered the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Mechanical Engineer to become an Aircraft Maintenance Officer.
In August, the first test of an atomic weapon by the USSR brought a world of change to the RCAF. By late 1950 the RCAF plans included a NATO contribution of twelve squadrons of F-86E Sabres to be stationed in France and Germany. A further nine squadrons of all-weather CF-100 interceptors were to help protect North America. Ross was stationed in Manitoba to assist in the establishment of pilot training programs at RCAF Gimli, MacDonald, and Portage la Prairie.
From 1955-1959, Ross was an instructor at the RCAF Radar and Electronics School, leaving as Chief Instructor, Squadron Leader and transferred to RCAF Station Holberg, a Pinetree Line GCI Radar Station. Promoted to Wing Commander in 1960, he commanded the Station for one year before a transfer to RCAF HQ in Ottawa. In 1966 he was transferred to RCAF Station North Bay where he commanded the SAGE Maintenance and Control Unit within the underground Northern NORAD HQ and served as Director of Communications of the Air Defence Operations Centre.
In 1969, Ross went to Ramstein Air Base in Germany where he was Chief of Telecommunications at the 4th Allied Tactical Air Force until 1973. He retired in 1977 after further postings in Kingston, Ottawa and Cairo, Egypt where he served as the Canadian Forces Military Attache. After leaving the Canadian Forces, he worked for the National Research Council as the site manager at the Algonquin Radio Observatory where he was able to indulge himself observing very clever young technologists working with state-of-the-art radio receivers used to probe the cosmos.
A life at the frontiers of military radar and telecommunications all started with a chance posting to RAF Cranfield sometime late in the war.
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