Yvonne Wildman was born August 1, 1923 in Portland, Oregon. Her parents were from Canada, and the family returned to Saskatchewan when Yvonne was 4. She grew up there against the backdrop of the Great Depression. When the war came, Yvonne and four of her brothers joined up. Yvonne and a friend chose the RCAF Women’s Division, and they became WDs. She went through the training regimen mainly in Ottawa, and she was trained as a photographer, tasked with keeping a record of activities on the base and helping the men to develop their bomb aiming skills – a critical task in Canada’s bomber offensive. For Yvonne the war was very much about camaraderie and friendship, and she says she’d have stayed in the forces had the opportunity been there for Canadian women. It was not though, so she was discharged and headed to B.C., where she stayed for a time until she returned home to Saskatchewan, where she married and raised a family of her own, finding her place in postwar Canada. Yvonne came to our attention when her 100th birthday made the news, and her daughter and grandson taped this interview and shared it with the Crestwood Oral History Project, preserving Yvonne’s legacy – and that of the women of her generation.
