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Sgt. Earl Brentnall Duscharm MID
Royal Canadian Air Force 110 Squadron
from:Renfrew, Ontario
I have to admit that I was always a little afraid of my great Uncle Earl Duscharm when I was young. Looking back, I realize that he wasn’t all that large of a man physically, but what he lacked in stature, he definitely made up for in character. He could be a bit standoffish, definitely crusty, matter-of-fact, and oh, how he loved to argue…about anything at all. In fact, I can still remember so clearly the way that he would bait my grandmother and mother, often throwing out the most outrageous topics on the floor like a live hand grenade, and then he would just stand there smirking, waiting for the explosion. In spite of this exterior, even as a child I could sense that there was more within him…a lot more.
It would be a lot of years before I would become aware of his history, especially his experiences during the war, and more years still to even begin to understand his complexity. He never spoke very much about his life or these events, apart from in very vague and somewhat dismissive terms of doing ‘what had to be done’. Humility aside, he started out in the 110 Squadron, and then after in North Africa with the 417 Squadron(I think). During his time there he developed a way to save aviation fuel, for which he was mentioned in dispatches to the King.
He never married, nor did he have any children of his own, but he was always a grandfather to me, and it was an honour to know him for as long as I did. He died in 2010 at the age of 100, and I miss him dearly.
