Dedicated to Major General (Air Vice Marshal) Gordon Ockenden, who passed away during the writing of this book.
Mr. Ockenden, a World War II fighter pilot, was the first contributor to ‘Gander, From Past to Present', and his wife Patricia gratefully contributed further information.
Air Vice Marshall Ockenden, who at the age of 21 won a Distinguished Flying Cross, flew his Spitfire over the battlefields of Normandy, France and helped gather valuable intelligence information in the months after the war. Historical records show Gordon Ockenden destroyed thirty five German vehicles and downed four (officially four and a half) enemy aircraft.
He performed various military missions in the United States, once as a military attache in Washington and later, the North American Air Defence Organization (NORAD) in Colorado.
Upon his retirement in 1983, he moved to British Columbia, where he volunteered fifty hours a week as an elected councillor for his district; building homes for Habitat for Humanity and was an original director of the Okanagan Military Museum Society.

This book is for all the men and women who serve in the military.