RCAF commander joins high school students to honour a “Dambuster”
On November 9, 2018, during their annual Remembrance Day ceremony, the staff and students of Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa honoured one of their own: Pilot Officer Lewis Johnstone Burpee who graduated from Lisgar in 1937. Pilot Officer Burpee and his aircrew lost lives when the Lancaster bomber in which they were flying was shot down during the famous Dambusters Raid of May 1943.
Pilot Officer Burpee’s son, Lewis Burpee, Junior, was a special guest at the ceremony. Also in attendance were Lieutenant-General Al Meinzinger, commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and Chief Warrant Officer Denis Gaudreault, RCAF command chief warrant officer. Here are the remarks Lieutenant-General Meinzinger made to the students and staff during the ceremony.
