Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum boosts Brandon tourism
Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2014 “Heritage does not draw visitors to Brandon” to quote one mayoral candidate.

Excuse me sir, but you are absolutely wrong. I would invite you and anyone else to visit the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum and inspect our guest book. Our museum attracted 11,662 visitors last year from coast to coast in Canada, but also from the U.S. and worldwide. Many visit our site and then find hotel accommodations in Brandon and return the next day.

Now that the Brandon Municipal Airport has secured WestJet and terminal improvements, the addition of our one-of-a-kind memorial, not only for Canada but the world, Brandon has even more reasons for heritage tourism. Those flying on WestJet are greeted to our community with 300 feet of black granite etched with 19,256 names, an eight-foot bronze airman, 12,000 square feet of paving stone, including a 60-foot RCAF wing in full colour, all highly visible from the air as WestJet approaches Brandon. Keep in mind, if it was not for the names on the memorial wall and others like those, there would be no mayoral race but a German dictatorship.

We appreciate what the City of Brandon has done for our museum over the years. We certainly understand that due to the recent flooding, the city has not had the funds available for items like paving. I imagine that the mayor and council were no more proud than I was to have an estimated 2,000 guests driving over a poor gravel road to attend the unveiling of our RCAF Second World War Memorial.

However, with the possibilities of specific heritage funding, such as the hotel tax and perhaps a heritage reserve in the future — both would be most desirable additions to limited heritage funding — the air museum will continue to attract visitors from around the world for years to come.

ARCHIE LONDRY
Memorial chair and CATPM director

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 17, 2014

THEY GREW NOT OLD
. During the Second World War thousands of young Canadian men and women, as well as some from other countries, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force.  By the end of WWII the R.C.A.F. was the fourth largest air force in the world.   Canadians also joined the Royal Air Force, Naval Fleet Air Arm and Ferry Command.   Between September 1939 and August 1945, 18,039 died serving these British Commonwealth forces.   Members of the British Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force came to Canada to further their training, of whom 1146 lost their lives in or near Canada.

The 300 foot airfoil-shaped granite wall, watched over by a bronze airman, has been erected on consecrated ground.   The names and ages of these young men and women have been etched on this wall as a permanent tribute to the ultimate sacrifice they made for our freedom.

For us, they grew not old