Metz, France

Many who served at 61 Squadron, Metz France knows that Ginny was an Alsatian (German Shepherd). She was our Squadron mascot and was also the pride of the Squadron.

Her demise began with the close of 61 AC&W Squadron, on 1 January 1963.

During the early months following the Squadron closure the responsibility of this beautiful animal was taken over by the Base Military Police. While I may be wrong, it seemed to me that other than a few individuals, there was little or no interest in her well being. Ginny was, for the most part, kept in her dog house at the Squadron compound. Every once in a while an MP would have her at the base guard house. It was at this point she started to deteriorate - her hair was matted, her coat lacked the luster we all knew, and she began to gain weight.

An MP who had taken to Ginny, and was one of the few MPs who took care of her, soon realized that she was in need of some TLC. He arranged to take ownership of this fine animal and within a few months he restored her to her former condition and well being.

As we all know in the military, there are three certainties, death, taxes and "postings".

The MP who took ownership of Ginny, was transferred to 4 Wing, during the spring of 1964, and was not successful in getting Ginny proper papers to cross the border with him. As I was one of the few, if not the last of the remaining 61 Squadron personnel left in Metz, he asked me to take her. I lived on the economy in the small town of Peltre, and since I had access to a large fenced in garden area, I agreed to take her.

During the remaining part of 1964 Ginny became the family pet. She took to the children as if they were her own and she was very protective of the household. Indeed Le Gendarmerie paid a few visits to my residence due to complaints received from the neighbors, the postman, the milkman or any other local who might pass by my residence and place his/her hand on the gate. Ginny was not letting any of the locals access to "HER" property. Unfortunately, the visits from the Gendarmerie always resulted in a fine. Yet, any Canadian, in or out of uniform, that visited my home while Ginny was there had absolute no difficulty. Ginny usually greeted Canadian visitors with a brief wag of the tail and was back to playing with the children. She had a sixth sense when it came to recognizing people.

When I first arrived at 61 Squadron in 1961, Spider McDonald or Paul Parent told me a story about a French garbage collector who accidentally took Ginny’s food and disposed of it. Ginny never forgot this incident and would only allow the garbage collector’s assistant to leave the cab of the truck to pick up the garbage.

During the fall of 1964, I was looking for another home for Ginny. A friend of mine, a Comm Tech, told me that one of the remote Comm Sites might take her and that he would discuss this with the NCOs in charge to get the proper approval. Soon after that I gave Ginny to the Comm Site located south of Metz and that was the last I ever saw her. I got regular updates from the Comm Techs on Ginny’s well being and unfortunately the last update provided to me, a few months after she arrived at the Comm Site, was not good. It seems that Ginny was allowed to run freely and she was accused of attacking and killing a farmer’s livestock. As a result, personnel at the Comm Site had to put her down - a sad ending for such a beautiful animal.

Pinetree Line Note: Ed Legere and I worked together for a short period of time (September 1964 to January 1965) in the Combat Operations Center at Metz. While I never had the opportunity to meet Ginny, I am certain that Ed and his family were very sad when they were advised of Ginny’s death. We take great pride of providing a number of photos of "Ginny" in happier days and request that you share your photos of "Ginny" to be added to this section of the web site.