ESTEVAN - Duane and Allan Gall remain proud of the decades they spent serving Canadians through the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force, respectively, even though both are now retired.
The brothers, who were born in Estevan and went to the Estevan Comprehensive School, reflected on their respective careers during interviews with the Mercury and SaskToday.
Wanted to see the world
Duane Gall joined the Navy because he grew up travelling and he wanted to keep doing so; the Navy afforded him that opportunity. He was born in Estevan and lived in the Energy City until he was five years old. His family then moved to Scotland for four years, Singapore for six years, and then he moved to Bienfait with his older brother to live with his grandparents and go to school in Estevan.
When Duane applied to join the Navy in 1989, Allan was already with the Air Force. Duane recalls he was working in the oilpatch in southeast Saskatchewan, but it didn't appeal to him, and the Navy fit his desire for travel.
"I specifically wanted the Navy because they had offered me a few other things like supply technician, which I could have gone with anywhere, but I specifically wanted the Navy and to go back to the Far East, where I spent six years growing up," said Duane.
While in the Navy, he travelled up and down the Pacific Coast of Canada and the U.S., stretching from Alaska to San Diego. There were a lot of trips to Hawaii as well. He went all over the Mediterranean and made two trips through the Panama Canal. He also went to Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand, Mumbai and the Koreas.
The most memorable deployment was to the coast of Libya at Christmas 2011 during an uprising in 2011 and 2012.
"It was just the whole camaraderie," said Duane. "We had all been together for three or four months at that time, doing our deployment off the coast of Sirte and Misrata during the Libyan conflict."
Duane's wife shipped in some small items, and he and a friend sewed up stockings for all of the members within their department.
"There's the two of us at three o'clock in the morning giggling away as we're putting stockings on all of these guys' lockers as they're trying to sleep or … on watch," he recalled.
Nobody knew who did it for two or three weeks.
"Things like that stick out – the people and the camaraderie and doing Christmas dinner together, because Christmas dinner, I was a petty officer second class at the time on that deployment, and the petty officers and above, the chiefs and the officers, we served dinner to the junior ranks, to the crew," said Duane.
Duane said he stayed in the Navy for so long because he never found the work boring. As boatswain, they were doing different things all of the time, whether it be standing watch, guiding the boat at sea, performing maintenance or shooting firearms.
"There's tons of little different things you're doing all the time," said Duane. "It never seemed like it was work to me."
He was a chief petty officer second class when he retired in May. Duane said he was in the process of getting released medically due to injuries he had throughout his years in the Navy. The 35 years took a toll. He could have remained for another 4 1/2 or five years, but he knew it was time to move on.
"I was getting older. The Navy was changing. Newer ships. New policies. It was just my time, before I became one of those grumpy old guys," he said.
Since leaving the Navy, he and his wife moved from Victoria to Spaniard's Bay, N.L. They drove their trailer across Canada for the move, stopping in Estevan and elsewhere for visits, and are now settling into their new home before winter. He's enjoying life after the Navy.
Duane was the guest speaker for the Remembrance Day service in Estevan last year – the first time he'd been home in 12-15 years. He wanted a low-key visit, but was asked to give the address.
"One of the highlights was one of the schools we actually went to [Hillcrest] was the school that I did my kindergarten and Grade 1 in before I left Estevan," said Duane.
From pilot to air traffic controller
Allan Gall joined the Air Force because he wanted to be a pilot, but he wound up becoming an air traffic controller.
"Flying always intrigued me, so that was the easy way of getting flight training and getting to become a pilot," he said.
Allan's not sure when or where the flying bug first bit him, but he recalls being intrigued when his family lived in Scotland and seeing the Harrier jets flying around near where they lived.
Allan joined the Air Force in March 1987. He didn't make it through pilot school, so he switched to the air traffic controller job. Allan remained with the RCAF until late 1995, and then he went to New Zealand for six years, where he was part of their territorial air force.
He recalled that in the mid-1990s, the Canadian military decided it had too many air traffic controllers, so their contracts weren't renewed.
"New Zealand was looking for people at the time, so they came to Canada, interviewed 106 controllers, and then hired 12 of us," said Allan.
Then he came back to Canada and worked as a civilian-contracted air traffic controller at the base in Goose Bay, N.L. for four years, until he returned to the Air Force in 2006. He remained until 2021.
Allan was a captain when he retired. He took a job in Regina with the Saskatchewan Safety Council, teaching motorcycle training, defensive driving and anything that has to do with road safety, and stayed with them for a year. He was then hired by 15 Wing Moose Jaw as a civilian-contracted air traffic controller.
Since he's working at an Air Force base, he's not completely removed from the Canadian Forces, and so he doesn't miss it as much as would have otherwise.
Allan said he enjoyed the people he met and the opportunities the Air Force provided.
"I served in Afghanistan for seven months," he said. "I went to Iqualuit [in Nunavut] for two weeks on an exercise. I ended up at the Thule Air Base in Greenland for a couple of weeks," said Allan.
But he most enjoyed training new air traffic controllers coming into the service.
"From starting out as the young guy to now being the old guy, and seeing all these young kids starting their career just like I did, I think that whole training aspect for me is where I get the most enjoyment out of it," he said.
Allan said he and his brother were the first in their family to join the Canadian Forces. It was always good to travel across the country to where Duane was stationed and see a different side of the forces.
"He'd show me the Navy stuff when I'd go visit him, and I'd show him the Air Force stuff when he came to visit me. So, it was kind of neat being able to see someone entrenched in a different circle in the service and be able to see a different side of it."
There is a sense of pride that they both served as long as they did and were able to accomplish so much in their careers.
