Bill Mason, Royal Canadian Air Force Veteran, to Share WWII Stories at Twinsburg Public Library

A retired NASA engineer is set to launch a three-part World War II series at at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.

Bill Mason, who used to give talks about the Apollo program and the Space Shuttle, will share his firsthand recollections of serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force at the library, located at 10050 Ravenna Road.

The 93-year-old Avon Lake resident’s fascinating life started in Hawkesbury, Ontario, near Ottawa. Apparently, his parents had some marital problems.

“My mother sent my brother and I to Manitoba to her sister,” Mason said.

When she sent for them, she was living in Toledo with her second husband. She had divorced their father, but told her sons he had died.

“She lied to the immigration people, too,” Mason said, reporting that his biological father had been born in the United States. “In those days, they didn’t worry about immigration.”

Mason participated on state championship track teams at Toledo Scott High School. He followed his coach to the University of Toledo, where he studied engineering for two years on a scholarship.

Before the United States entered World War II, Army Air Corps recruiters visited the university, looking for candidates for flight school. When he reported to an airfield in Indiana, Mason was asked about his citizenship. Because he was not an American citizen, he was booted out.

Then he ran into a high school friend, who was serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. The friend invited Mason to go flying with him.

“I stayed three days in the barracks with him,” Mason said, pointing out that rules were less stringent in those days, “and I joined the Canadian Air Force.”

He went to boot camp in Toronto and got his initial flight training near Hawkesbury.

“They had biplanes then,” Mason said. “150 horsepower, two wings, glass sliding top. I was there during winter. We had skis on the airplane.”

He got advance training north of Toronto, got his wings and a commission in the RCAF.

“The Canadians' contribution to the war was the training of air crews,” Mason said. “All British Empire flyers came to Canada to train.”

Mason ended up assigned to Royal Air Force Bomber Command in England, flying over Germany and France and dropping bombs from a multi-engine Wellington.

“My first 10 trips were over France, breaking down the German transportation system,” he said. He’ll share more war stories at the Twinsburg library program.

After the war in Europe ended, Mason was assigned to a Canadian Air Force base in Kingston, Ontario. When the war in the Pacific ended, he continued his education at Queen's University in Kingston and earned a degree in engineering/metallurgy.

He returned to Toledo, where he studied corrosion rates for the Pure Oil company. Then he moved to Dunkirk, NY, to take a position as welding engineer for American Locomotive Co.

Mason joined NASA in Cleveland in 1960, during the Apollo program.

“I looked forward to going to work,” Mason said. “For me, it was the perfect place to be. I retired in 1988 and went to work as a consultant on aerospace-related contracts until 1994.”

Part 2 of the Twinsburg Public Library’s WWII series on Oct. 15 will feature former Plain Dealer photographer Bill Wynne, talking about the Yorkshire terrier he found in New Guinea, who became a war hero.

On Nov. 12, Stan Wolczyk, a former Wadsworth schools principal, will talk about serving in the Aleutian Islands during the Japanese invasion.