Myles, Beth E.: my Air Force recollections (November 1, 2006)
An interview/narrative of Beth Myles's experiences with the Canadian Air Force Division in Europe. Interview took place on November 1, 2006.
Interviewee: Myles, Beth E.
Interviewer: Smith, Allison
ABSTRACT: Beth Myles (00:16) Beth met her husband in 1953. (1:25) they moved to Canada in October 1956. (2:30)They went back to Europe in 1963 at 4 Wing, Baden Baden. (2:50) the living was pretty primitive here because they had to live in an apartment in a little village off the economy; they had to stoke the fire place to get a warm shower. (3:25) they were always living off the base in apartments. (4:10) they had children in 1966, and moved to a nice home in the country of Baden Baden. (5:05) She was connected with the base socially and did some shopping there. (and locally to get veggies where she learned the language). (5:40) Different postings took them back to Canada and later she would return to Europe to Allied head quarters, Shape, in Belgium. (6:00) Squadrons are very close nit. (7:08) her husband was in the Nuclear ops office that time. (7:25) they had all these silly rules here (not Canadian run). Had to wear hats until 6:00 in the evening. (8:00) Mess was for serving members of the military. But wives were invited in at time. (8:20) in 1973 they went back to Baden and her husband took over as Squadron leader. (8:50) they had hockey (that her husband helped with) and skating for their children to participate in at the time. (9:40) Also, guides, brownies and cubs, dancing, swimming. (12:00) they moved constantly. (12:25) There was no travel money for when they had weekends off. They just lived a normal life. (12:45) Because her husband was a pilot she got flying pay. (13:00) a lot of the wives were unhappy, they missed home. (13:20) but she loved Europe because it was close to her home in Scotland. (14:00) She enjoyed the moving because everywhere was somewhere new for her to explore. (14:30) The base offered: Grocery stores, gift stores, PX (post exchange), a rec. center for sports, the people at the base at Baden built a golf course. (15:40) The children were schooled at the base when they were old enough. (16:40) When her husband was not around she was the authority, but she tried to make sure the kids were ready when dad got home so he would have a chance to spend time with them, and they did things on weekends. (17:40) on Saturday nights if they didn't have any commitments they would take them to France for dinner, and her kids learned in Austria and Switzerland to ski. (19:15) Single guys were good in the squadron to let the married people have the time off for Christmas and other holidays. (21:41)Life was the same there as it would be in Canada as a military family. (23:50) Before she had children she went exploring with the car with some other ladies at the time, they were young and this was exciting. (26:00) the PMQ's over in Europe were basically furnished. (26:25) She learned a lot of German interacting with the locals because they would make her say what she bought in German before they would sell it to her. you still had the same kind go chores, but leave was interesting as was the weekends when you got to go exploring. (31:09) the Atmosphere was tense at times because of the cold war. When they were at Shape her husband couldn't fly on commercial air lines because of his high security clearance. (32:15) a lot of young men were killed flying these air craft. (33:20) One thing the government did that she didn't think was right was they would send the wife off to Canada almost right after she lost her husband. They didn't give them time to grieve with the people who knew what they were going through. (34:00) she has a lot of admiration for one women whose husband was killed and that day still had her child's birthday party. (36:00) At the bases she went to language classes (French and German) and you could continue your education through the American Universities through distance education. (37:00) She wanted to speak the languages so she could converse with the people. (38:00) She dressed very conservatively because the Europeans were conservative. They were not permitted to enter the Mess in slacks, or the grocery stores. Once in the 60's she took her pants off, with tights on underneath and went into the grocery store with a long coat on so they would think she was wearing a skirt.(39:15) When they left they were told they were ambassadors for Canada. (40:00) Canada's air force was relatively small. You were always running back into friends. ((43:10) her role was to be the anchor with the children, always there. (44:00) officers wives were not supposed to work so in Europe she didn't work, she just had fun. (45:00) When their daughter left Belgium she spoke only in French until her dad came home, she was fluent. (48:00) they ended up spending 5 years in Baden. She thought they were very lucky. (49:30) when her husband took over the squadron it was a lot of work, she had to do a lot of entertaining and they did not get a budget to do that. They would bring in the squadron members and their wives for dinner parties or cocktails. (51:30) in the Shape base once a year they would put on a party at the Shape complex. They joined together with the Greeks living in the same place for a luncheon and all the people stepped in and helped. Over a thousand people would come to this party- very popular. (55:50) She liked Shape because of all the different nationalities. (30:20) thought it you balked at going to certain places it would affect your husbands career. After interview she told me: that she had a problem with two things: That officers wives were called dependents. She did not like being referred to as a dependent, she did not see herself that way. Also she did not like how TGIF on Fridays the wives were not invited. The men, women in the military and teachers (who paid mess fees) were allowed, but the wives were not. She also later talked about how she was independent and at the time did not want to do house work and the wifely duties when they were first married. She thought it was boring. Her first introduction to military life in Canada was in Trenton. Her husband was really understanding of her and told her to get a job if she wanted. So she did in Canada when she was allowed.
- In Collection:
- 1 sound recording (MP3)
- 48.69096, 9.14062
- Original recording (DVF) on compact disc (CD) in Special Collections.
- Canadian Military Oral History Collection
- MBE_509
- Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection
- January 23, 2013
- Digital sound recording in .mp3 format at 56 kbps and 16 kHz. Digitized by JF, technical and cataloguing metadata provided by JF and JP. Interview migrated to digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2013. Migration metadata by KD and MT.
- Rights
- This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca
- DOI
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