Major Deanna Brasseur stands at the podium inside the 4 Wing Theatre – Photo by Mike Marshall
Major Deanna Brasseur, CM says the drive to 4 Wing from Edmonton brought back some memories of the past.
“At one point, I said ‘This is a longer drive than I remember.’ It seems like a long way out to the middle of nowhere. I thought yes, it was probably more so, back in 1986 when I first came to Cold Lake.”
The 4 Wing Military Family Resource Centre Society (MFRCS) played host on Friday, November 5th to Brasseur, a pioneer for women in aviation and one of the first of two to become fighter pilots with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Her speech was a mixture of inspiration and motivation, biography, and viewpoints on what has changed when it comes to the culture of the military, and what still needs to be done.
Brasseur says she began her military career in 1972, as an Administrative Clerk.
“I ran away from home at 19 years old to join the military, because I was tired of the regulations I had at home,” explains Brasseur. “In those days, I was given the choice of finance, admin, or supply. There were ninety-five thousand members in the Canadian Armed Forces, which was restricted to fifteen hundred women.”
Not too long after, Brasseur was commissioned as an officer and volunteered to become one of the first female RCAF pilots, when the program was opened up to women around 1979.
“Four of us went to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba to become pilots in the Canadian Armed Forces. Portage la Prairie, at that time, took 1250 applications processed through air crew selection, to get, at the end, about 165 graduates,” says Brasseur.
Maj Brasseur stands with (left) 4 Wing Chief Warrant Officer CWO Lee Darling and (right) 4 Wing Commander Col Dave Moar – Photo by Mike Marshall
It was this first step where she says she saw obstacles because of her gender.
“Everywhere we went, because we were the first, we had to do press conferences and interviews. ‘Gee, how are the guys treating you?’ ‘Really good.’ I never lied so much in my whole life. No, they didn’t include us in the parties, they didn’t include us in the studies, they didn’t include us in whatever might have assisted us in the ability to come together as a team.”
After graduating, she headed to CFB Moose Jaw, eventually becoming an instructor there. By 1986, Brasseur said her sights were set on a new goal, becoming a fighter pilot.
“Guys would sit in the bar and say ‘Women can’t fly fighters,’ explains Brasseur. “I’d say ‘What do you mean, they can’t fly fighters?’ We don’t know if we can or we can’t, we hadn’t had the opportunity. Give me the opportunity.”
She then made the way to 4 Wing and became a part of Base Flight, where she flew the T-33 T-Bird for a few years before another change was announced in the CAF, and she was allowed to begin fighter training in 1988 with 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron along with Captain Jane Foster, CD.
“In December of 1988, Jane and I graduated as the first two female fighter pilots in Canada. We started with six months on the CF-5 and then moved on to the CF-18s. In those days, when you went up into the wheel well, you still smelled fresh paint. It was only about six years after we got them, basically.”
Brasseur served as a pilot with 416 Tactical Fighter Squadron from 1989 to 1990, later becoming a female Military Aircraft Accident Investigator in the CAF. She retired in 1994, later rejoining with the Reserve Force in 2002.
Through that time, Brasseur says work has been done when it comes to wrongs being righted, but it must continue.
“Whether we have to have prayer mats, whether we have to have breastfeeding rooms and maternity uniforms, which we didn’t have, we have to accommodate it. We are an organization of Canadians. The Canadian Forces are Canadians and represent them, all races, all religions, all creeds. We are a team.”
