Mistaken Identity

Heroes Remember

Mistaken Identity

Transcript

We were selected for air crew training and then selected for pilot training. And, of course, we were delighted to do this and we were sent from there to High River, Alberta to start training. At that school we had instrument training, flying in a Link trainer and a couple of times my twin wasn't going to make it and we used to keep an eye on what each of us were doing all the time. And so he wasn't, somehow... and that was a black, I don't know what had happened, I forget. So I rushed and took his training instead because I just walked in and they were expecting Warren and I said, "I'm Warren", and I climbed in and did it. Well, the times I did for him I got a better mark than when I did it for myself. And the man who did the flying test when he found we were twins, he was a senior person there said, "I'll do them both,"he said, "I wanna see if they fly alike." And he came down and said, "I can't tell their flying apart." And when we graduated, when we graduated, the good news was we graduated and got our wings and we laugh and say the bad news was my twin was commissioned and I was not. And the reason for that was they commissioned the first eight out of the thirty-seven, and I was number nine and he was number eight.

Description

Mr. Warren, who enlisted with his identical twin brother, describes an ironic situation which occurs while training in a Link Trainer at High River, Alberta. Mr. Warren's twin is having trouble in this machine, and unbeknown to the instructor, they trade places. Ironically, the marks Mr. Warren gets for his brother are higher than his own.

Douglas Warren

Douglas Warren was born on May 28, 1922 in Nanton, Alberta. His father, a farmer, was an isolationist emigrant from the United States. One of four children, Mr. Warren had an identical twin brother with whom he was very close. They had always wanted to fly, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1940. Mr. Warren completed his pilot training in High River, Alberta. Once overseas, he joined #165 Spitfire Squadron in Ayr, Scotland, and was involved in the air battle during the Dieppe Raid, as well as later flying cover on bombing raids. He then joined #66 Squadron at Falaise, France, flying the new SpitfireMK9B in ground attack operations. Mr. Warren was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, Mr. Warren's exemplary career continued after permanently joining the RCAF. He became Fighter Leader for Canada's Meteor Jet Squadron, served in the Korean War, was a NATO pilot instructor in Germany, and served time with NORAD. Mr. Warren eventually became Assistant Base Commander at Comox from where he retired with the rank of Wing Commander.

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