Grostenquin France

Pilots who held desk jobs at Air Division Headquarters in Metz did their monthly proficiency flying at Grostenquin, one of the four RCAF fighter stations in Europe in the early 1950s. There they had mighty, twin engined C-45 Expeditors or T-33 Silver Stars to wrestle around the sky.

One such "desk pilot" was a Wing Commander with an unshakable French-Canadian accent. He was well known throughout the service not only for his accent and his war record, but for his sense of humour. This Wingco was airborne one day in an Expeditor, in contact with the Grostenquin Control Tower. With nothing much to break the monotony, the Tower operator decided to have some fun with the Wingco.

After some preliminary verbal skirmishes in which they pretended that they were having difficulty hearing his transmissions, and after asking him continually to repeat his requests, one of the controllers called: "Airforce 234 this is Grostenquin Tower. Could you r-o-u-n-d out your words a bit more. Please try to r-o-u-n-d your words. Over."

The Wingo was just as quick as his pranksters. He pressed his mike button and said: "Harse Hole. How's dat?"