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Donated
By Slim Hedman
Aylmer
Firefighter Course 128:
Editor Note: I
received an update this date from Slim Hedman with the correct names for
FF Course 128.
Back row
L to R Jim McInnis, Cliff Brooks, Al Slacket, Bobby Edwards,
George Fry. Front
row – Don "Slim" Hedman, Roger Comeau, Roy Houston,
‘Swede’ Hendrickson and Doug Wright.
"Can't believe Course 128 fell through the
cracks, it started (as Course 126) and went through about 28
guys before ending with five survivors. We were probably in
Aylmer longer (six months) than any course in history, we had setbacks
for more reasons than you could shake a stick at. Note my left
foot. Because we were the senior course, we were testing the new
bunker gear and heat hoods to idle away the time during the
Coronation setback, the test consisted of:
1. The Instructor (Bernie Joly in my case)
wearing the new gear and The Student (me) wearing the old.
2. Lighting a small fuel spill and walking
into the centre of it armed with a 30 lb Ansul.
3. See who overheated and chickened out
first.
Bernie soon gave me a shot of dry chem - I gave
him a playful shot back, he emptied his extinguisher on me, the
hoselines came in, they threw me into the drafting pit to extinguish
me and removed my hip waders along with the skin off the tops of both
feet where the hip waders had fused to my gray woolen socks. 'Stu'
Pakka was then burned in the face (and set back a few weeks) and
the MO put a stop to the testing. I was probably the only graduate to
pass the crash rescue final by running the G15 pump (in my
bandaged feet) for the other guys and getting the average of
their marks. The good old days.
Hope this helps a bit. I really enjoy your site, spent
about two hours a day for the past two days looking around.
All the best."
Don Hedman
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FF Course 128
