Borisko, Nick

Nick Borisko was born December 10, 1925 in the little village of Hubbard, Saskatchewan.  He grew up in that very small community, the third of eight children of immigrants from the Ukraine who had left the Austro-Hungarian Empire looking for a better life.  His father was a farmer, and although the family grew up in town they all worked the land and tended the animals.  Nick remembers the tough days of the Great Depression – and the many homeless who came through Hubbard “riding the rails”.  With all that school began to lose its allure, and Nick decided to join the RCAF once he turned 18.  After Manning Depot, he went into the BCATP system, where he was trained as a wireless operator at Guelph.  Debert, Nova Scotia was the next stop, an operational training unit (OTU) run by the RAF.  Here the crew learned the ins-and-outs of doing submarine patrols off Canada’s east coast, as they were being readied for a part in the ongoing Battle of the Atlantic.  Eastern Air Command would be Nick’s next stop, and he flew out of Sydney and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, first in Number 9  and then Number 11 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron.  They flew Hudson and Liberator aircraft, equipped with depth charges to take out enemy subs.  On May 9, 1945 they were getting ready to fly a mission – when they were told to sit – it turned out that the war was over! By war’s end Nick had spent almost two years keeping the supply lines open, and he had spent 1000 hours in the air.  Crestwood students were able to visit Nick at the Sunnybrook Veterans’ Wing in Toronto in October 2023.