Year in Review: Beloved vet passes away, is honoured in Remembrance Day ceremony
Posted Dec 28, 2019 10:30 am.
Last Updated Dec 18, 2019 2:36 pm.
AIRDRIE — He was one of the few surviving Canadian fighter pilots who saw action in World War II.
Jack Henry Hilton passed away in March at the age of 99.
The Airdrie resident was a familiar sight at Remembrance Day ceremonies in that community and in Calgary, with his final one in 2018 at the Hangar Flight Museum.
READ MORE: ‘Flying in better skies’: First Remembrance Day without beloved WWII vet
Jack was in his 90s when he published his memoir, The Saga of a Canadian Typhoon Fighter Pilot. It was a conversation with his daughter that convinced him to share his story.
“She said, Dad you should make that into a book and she helped me clean it up and brush it up and send it in.”
Hilton wrote about his experiences as a flight instructor and a fighter pilot over Europe.
“We crashed in a French field. We were okay and the next day I was flying over Holland in a fighter.”
The #RCAF sends condolences to the family of 99-year old Jack Hilton, Second World War Typhoon pilot and author of “The Saga of a Canadian Typhoon Fighter Pilot” who passed away on March 7.#RememberThem pic.twitter.com/gp15dEQj3C
— Royal Canadian Air Force (@RCAF_ARC) March 9, 2019
During a 2016 interview with 660 NEWS, Jack said his memories were still fresh, after more than 70 years.
“I tell you, I still get flashbacks, I still get memories, I still get nightmares, if you want to call them.”
