One last engine run becomes a sendoff for longtime RCAF member

David Clemens could not think of a better way to send his late father off than in a Lancaster aircraft at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.

David Clemens could not think of a better way to send his late father off than in a Lancaster aircraft at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.

Bill Clemens, 98, died in December.

The former mechanic worked on several aircrafts during the Second World War.

“He worked on Wellingtons, Halifax and Lancasters,” said Clemens.

Bill was a mechanic at RCAF Claresholm before going overseas to work on the Halifaxes and Lancasters of RCAF 427, 429, 435, 436, and 437 Squadrons.

“Young guys doing their best, out in the open, no hangars, fixing bombers so they could go every night, so that we could have freedom and victory,” said Karl Kjarsgaard, director of the Halifax project at the museum.

On Sunday, Clemens brought his dad’s ashes inside the cockpit of the Lancaster at the museum for one last ride.