Description
Philip Pochailo
Philip Pochailo was born in Rainy River, Ontario, on November 19, 1920. After finishing his education, he worked several years in lumber camps, and finally enlisted in the RCAF in 1942. He went overseas in 1943. After advanced training as a bomb aimer in Great Britain, he was assigned to a British crew in No.1 Bomber Command in April 1944. His aircraft was shot down over the Netherlands and only he and the aircraft's pilot survived. Mr. Pochailo evaded capture and joined the Dutch Resistance Movement where he lived and worked for the next 12 months. He was liberated by Canadian troops in Rotterdam in 1945. Mr. Pochailo returned to Canada after the war and now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.
Transcript
We . . . the, the, the message . . . I, I keep getting back to the same thing, I think the message that we must give is freedom is not free. Freedom does not . . . it, it isn't something that's handed to you, it's something that must be earned. And as long as we remember that, and we remember the, the, the . . . people have died. All kinds of people have died for the freedom that we've, that, that, that that, that, that we enjoy and we cherish. It's important. That's the message that I would, that's the message that I would like to leave with, with, with young people.