Freelance writer and photographer Sonja Drinkwater has spent the past six years telling the stories of veterans from the Alberni Valley in our annual Remembrance Day section. This year she spoke with six veterans who shared with her photos from when they served with their respective military branch, as well as some of their experiences while serving with Canada’s military. She then took a photo of each veteran as they are now. If you know of a Port Alberni veteran who deserves to be featured in a future edition of Then & Now, please contact us via email at editor@albernivalleynews. com or call the newsroom at 250-723- 6399.
Dennis Craig was born in northern Saskatchewan and came to Port Alberni in 1948 with his parents Helen and Shorty Craig. He went to Eighth Avenue Elementary and to Alberni District High School. He and his family moved to Ucluelet in 1953. His military career began like so many others of that era: with a trip to the nearest recruiting office.
"My brother and I were in Nanaimo and walked into the local Army recruiting office where we signed up with the Canadian Army (regular)," Craig recalls. "I was 21 and my brother was 18.
"I was sent to Camp Chilliwack to the Royal Canadian Engineers. I went through basic training, learning field engineering trades such as laying and clearing mine fields, water supply depots, demolition exercises etc. They also put us through short introductory courses in the construction trades such as carpentry, plumbing, electricity, welding, masonry and firefighting."
Craig was posted to No. 3 Field Squadron in Camp Chilliwack. From there he was put into the automotive mechanical trade and applied for and eventually got a group 2 level mechanic RCE. "That entailed heavy duty equipment and diesel mechanics," he says.
He was posted to the Arctic for six months in at Canadian Forces Station Alert in the Northwest Territories, at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. "When I returned to Chilliwack, I was put on a mechanic RCE group 3 course. That entailed the supporting trades for the underground bunkers ("Diefenbunkers")."
He learned refrigeration and air conditioning, water and waste water (sewage) treatment, sprinkling systems, steam engineering, electrical generating systems—all at the commercial level. His life was about to take a 90-degree turn.
"I was posted directly from the courses to the Gaza Strip in Egypt for a year, from July 1964 to July 1965. During my stay I was posted to a Swedish camp on the Red Sea to install a desalination plant to provide fresh water for their camp. While there, I had the opportunity to go to Mount Sinai and climb it.
"Later I was sent to the middle of the Sinai desert to install a deep water pump."
Back in Canada he was posted to Camp Gagetown in New Brunswick where he worked in the camp's secondary water treatment plant. While there he got his Civilian Fourth Class Stationery Engineers ticket.
"I then switched trades and went to Ottawa to become a topographical surveyor—a photogrammetrist. The maps we made show the form of the land.
"I took my discharge from the army on Aug. 8, 1968. I went to Malaspina College and BCIT and became a mining technologist in 1972. I went home to Tofino and ran Walter’s Air Service and then I managed Walter’s Grocery Store (1974)."
He moved back to Port Alberni in 1988 and worked for MacMillan-Bloedel, ending up at APD Sawmill.
Dennis is a 50-year member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 293. He has two children and seven grandchildren.
