Corbett, Raymond

Raymond Corbett was born September 3, 1934 in Bass River, Nova Scotia.  He grew up in that small community against the backdrop of the Second World War, where he attended school and church and did all the things that were normal in small town Canada at the time.  Ray left school in Grade 10, and seeing limited opportunities he elected to join the airforce, spurred on by a local minister who had been in the RCAF during the war.  Training took him to St-Jean and CFB Borden, where he learned to be an aero-engine mechanic.  Ray went on to be deployed at CFB Greenwood, and he did a number of stints at bases all around the Atlantic, servicing Canada’s sub-chasing aircraft, mainly Lancasters in the early years.  Other posts for Ray included Torbay in Newfoundland, where he was in 107 Rescue Squadron, Summerside PEI, and CFB Trenton.  He also served several overseas deployments, as part of NATO forces in France and UN peacekeeping forces in Egypt.  Along the way he married and raised a family, deciding in the end to retire to the Woodstock, Ontario area.  Ray Corbett was interviewed by Scott Masters in December 2023 at the Parkwood Veteran Centre in London, Ontario.