AIR MARSHALS : CANADIAN AIR FORCE COMMAN

A history of the Royal Canadian Air Force, told through the lives of its commanders.

The Air Marshals tells the story of the first four decades of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) through the careers of its commanders, from the beginning of powered flight to the early Cold War.

In 1924, the RCAF was born. The small, independent service navigated times of boom and bust over the next forty years while taking a key role in nation-building and defending Canadian interests. The Air Marshals explores these transformative decades through the lens of RCAF leadership, profiling the officers who dealt with the turbulent issues of their day: operations, personnel matters, procurement, air force expansion and contraction, training, and professionalization.

Collectively, these profiles highlight the qualities that define effective leadership: the ability to work with all parties, to listen, to act decisively, or to defer when needed. These hallmarks of success remain as true for today’s generation of RCAF commanders as they were for those pioneering leaders.

Richard Mayne is chief historian and director of the Royal Canadian Air Force History and Heritage Office. Among his many publications on Canadian military history and defense issues is Betrayed: Scandal, Politics, and Canadian Naval Leadership.

Mike Bechthold is a historian with the Royal Canadian Air Force History and Heritage Office, and he teaches history at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario. He is the author of Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign, 1940–1941 and editor of Airpower and the Normandy Campaign.