100-year-old Don Dygert sits with Major Rick Quickfall (left) and Chief Warrant Officer George Hammond of CFB Cold Lake-based Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE) at his birthday celebration at the Cold Lake Healthcare Centre on December 2nd – Photo by Mike Marshall / The Courier News.
Members from AETE were on hand to celebrate a special birthday in Cold Lake recently. Don Dygert celebrated his 100th birthday on December 2nd, surrounded by family and friends in the Cold Lake Healthcare Centre Long Term Care facility.
Dygert was born in 1922 in Grassy Lake, Alberta, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1943, during the Second World War. His career took him to places like Cold Lake, Borden, Bagotville, Lahr in what was then-West Germany, France, and elsewhere before he settled down in Cold Lake after retirement.
He ended up serving for 32 years and retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer in 1975.
Dygert’s family says he worked in avionics and was “well known as one of the best technicians the RCAF had for the CF-104 [Starfighter].”