Rockcliffe, Ontario

Whiskey

I was living in single quarters at RCAF station Rockcliffe when the CF-100 fell out of the sky and crashed into the Convent near Orleans, Ontario on 15 May 1956.

My radio was tuned to a local station and a news flash alerted me to the disaster. A man who was relaxing in his room was also listening to the same broadcast and came to my room suggesting we drive there immediately.

We got in my car and drove off the base, but instead of turning towards Orleans I drove into Ottawa and the nearest bar. We do not want to go there I told him, the first thing that will happen is the police will have the road blocked and besides the airforce will be looking for guards. The smart thing to do is get away from this base unless you want to spend the next week at the crash site. When we returned to our quarters three hours later the barracks was empty as anyone there had been rounded up for guard duty.

Nearly a month later I was working evening shift at 108 Comm Flt hangar and was relaxing in my quarters mid afternoon when a knock sounded at my door and three men entered. One was clad in uniform and I could see that he was a military policeman. The other two were in civilian clothes and they produced an ID card identifying them as CID men.

We have come to search your room the one in uniform barked, open your lockers and stay out of our way. Who else shares this room he demanded, pointing at the second bed in the room. My roommate I told him but he is has been away on detachment for the past six weeks. We don’t need to bother with his lockers one of the civilian dressed people said as he opened my locker.

Directly in front of him sat a forty-ounce bottle of Canadian Club whiskey with three or four drinks out of it. Is this your bottle the airforce policeman asked? We’re not interested with that one of the other men said as he continued to look through my belongings. They completed their search and departed.

As soon as they entered another room further down the hall I placed the bottle of whiskey in a bag and drove to a friend’s place in PMQ’s and asked his wife to keep it for me.

An hour later as I was preparing for work the door opened and two military police entered and went straight to my lockers. They searched through everything and asked where the whiskey was? What whiskey I asked?

We are not allowed to have liquor in our rooms I replied.

Later I heard that they were searching for a rocket from the CF-100 that one of the guards had taken for a souvenir.

Some souvenir-------Some whiskey !!

Roger Cyr - May 2005

Date: May 15, 1956
Time: c 22:17
Location: Orleans, Ontario, Canada
Operator: Military - Royal Canadian Air Force
Flight #: ?
Route: ?
AC Type: CF-100 Mark V
Registration: ?
cn / ln: ?
Aboard: 2 (passengers:0 crew:2)
Fatalities: 2 (passengers:0 crew:2)
Ground: 13
Summary: The CF-100 was from the Canadian Air Defense Command which was scrambled to investigate an unidentified transport plane flying in the area. Something malfunctioned on the fighter and the jet crashed into a convent operated by the Grey Nuns of the Cross, at over 680 miles an hour, destroying the three story, 70 room convent.