It's a story that's been told before, and yet it's one that never ceases to amaze. Myron Johnson's tale and visible proof of his ejection from a CF-104 plane on March 19, 1974 recently inspired a model club in Saskatoon to come down for a visit on Oct. 19.
"I had read Myron's article about his ejection seat in the Journal and shared it with members of the (Scale Modelers Association of Saskatoon)," said Dave Hill, a member of the association and a Humboldt resident. "Some of them were very interested some of these guys wanted to see the seat so when they build models, they can use it as a reference."
Some of the members also expressed an interest in making a visit and touring the Royal Canadian Legion Hall museum where the ejection seat was housed, so Hill contacted Al Hingley. As the museum president, Hingley was also keen to set something up, so eventually it was arranged that the club would come down and take a look, while also bringing their models to display.
The first portion of the day included Johnson talking about his experience to the club. After that, the club put their models on display for the public in the upstairs portion of the hall. As a special favour to Hingley and Johnson, the club also produced an exact replica of Johnson's CF-104.
"It was wonderful. It was my first time meeting Myron and it was wonderful hearing him go through his story," said Hill. "Myron had used the model to make his presentation it was an exact replica of the plane he was flying that day he went down and I think he was quite impressed."
According to Hingley, Johnson recalled how he had been testing a cannon or a gun because they were going to be installed in those particular plane models. He was up there alone except for a chaser plane that was following and taking pictures. The gun had exploded and Johnson was forced to eject.
"I had heard it all before, or most of it, but to hear him recount it years after the fact, he was so calm how he went through his experience," said Hingley. "It was one of those lifetime experiences for someone to be able to speak to you like that."
Colin Kunkel made the replica of Johnson's plane, though not all models are made to such exact detail. According to Hill, the specificity of models depend on how detailed a person wants to get. Some focus on getting the correct paint colours, while others like to do what-if scenarios.
"What if the war hadn't ended? Some people build planes and such that were never quite built," said Hill. "I do airplanes and I spend a lot of time detailing the cockpit or bomb bay."
The club had fourteen members attend Johnson's presentation.
