LAST POST – MAJ MIKE HENDERSON
We regret to advise you that we have lost a good comrade and friend of the Gunners as Maj Mike Henderson passed away on June 7.
Mike was a Second World War veteran having served as a FOO in 11 Fd Regt RCA in the Italian theatre. It was there that he directed the smoke screen for the attack on Monte Cassino. As a result of his experience in Italy and knowing at first hand the difficulty of a ground observer seeing “the other side of the hill”, Mike became a pioneer and advocate of Canadian Air OP.
After Italy, he served as an Air OP pilot in Northwest Europe for the rest of the War in Europe. He continued this association long after the War
He was the originator of the Air OP Pilots’ Association. This resulted in the production of the book “Canada’s Flying Gunners” which remains the best (only?) available record of the tradition of Army aviation in Canada.
He has been a long-time, active member of the Ottawa Gunners.
In his will, he specifically requested that, in lieu of a funeral service, that his Gunner friends and their successors meet at the OP, have a beer on him, sing “the Screw Guns”, and tell stories about the “Good Old Days” serving the “Guns” with him.
This will take place in the “OP” at the Ottawa Army Officers’ Mess on Friday, 20 June, at 1130 hrs.
Obituary details will be in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, June 14.
We regret to advise you that we have lost a good comrade and friend of the Gunners as Maj Mike Henderson passed away on June 7.
Mike was a Second World War veteran having served as a FOO in 11 Fd Regt RCA in the Italian theatre. It was there that he directed the smoke screen for the attack on Monte Cassino. As a result of his experience in Italy and knowing at first hand the difficulty of a ground observer seeing “the other side of the hill”, Mike became a pioneer and advocate of Canadian Air OP.
After Italy, he served as an Air OP pilot in Northwest Europe for the rest of the War in Europe. He continued this association long after the War
He was the originator of the Air OP Pilots’ Association. This resulted in the production of the book “Canada’s Flying Gunners” which remains the best (only?) available record of the tradition of Army aviation in Canada.
He has been a long-time, active member of the Ottawa Gunners.
In his will, he specifically requested that, in lieu of a funeral service, that his Gunner friends and their successors meet at the OP, have a beer on him, sing “the Screw Guns”, and tell stories about the “Good Old Days” serving the “Guns” with him.
This will take place in the “OP” at the Ottawa Army Officers’ Mess on Friday, 20 June, at 1130 hrs.
Obituary details will be in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, June 14.
| The following picture was provided for the website as an example of the fine moustaches that could be found on Mike Henderson and the other Officers in Shilo during the winter of 1946/47. It appears to me that they may well have been the forefathers of the 'Movember' movement? |  |
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