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"Jose Dormoy" ?  "... Born on the French island of Guadeloupe, Jose Dormoy realized at an early age that he wanted to be a pilot. But the advent of World War II almost extinguished his hopes. Guadeloupe, along with other French Caribbean possessions, was suddenly left with no choice but to become part of mainland France’s new Vichy government, a virtual puppet state whose status was forced upon them by Hitler’s Third Reich. Under German orders, unauthorized locals were strictly prohibited from even approaching any area where airplanes or ships were operating. If they did so, they risked being shot on the spot.
Soon after his sixteenth birthday, Jose hatched a daring plot. Along with two cousins-who were also obsessed with the dream of one day becoming pilots-he would “take possession” of a small sailboat under cover of darkness, then make their way to the neighboring island of Dominica. Dominica was still a British colony and, more importantly to Jose and his cousins, an ally of the French government in exile under Charles deGaulle.
Unfortunately, their voyage to freedom didn’t quite go as planned. Heavy swells capsized their small boat off the coast of Dominica and they were forced to swim the rest of the way. During the process, they lost all their identity papers-vital documents which would have confirmed their names, nationalities, and ages.
In the end, however, Jose turned this unexpected loss to his own advantage. When questioned by the British authorities on Dominica, he added two years to his actual age and told them, without the blink of an eye, that he was eighteen. He then went on to explain that he and his cousins wanted to join the British navy so that they could one day return and help liberate their homeland of Guadeloupe.
Whatever they said, it must have been convincing. Less than a month later, the three young men, all in their teens, were on their way to England.
After making several transatlantic crossings as a crew member of a naval escort convoy, Jose decided that his aviation career was going nowhere and disembarked in England. Finally, in 1943, he was accepted as a recruit by the Royal Air Force and began his training as a pilot.
Within a year, he had his licence. His childhood dream had finally become a reality. I am now a pilot!
During the waning years of the war, Jose flew numerous combat missions, many of them in different types of aircraft, including the famed Spitfire, and somehow managed to survive when so many others did not. After Germany’s surrender in 1945, he joined the French Air Force and was assigned to North Africa.
Jose finally returned home to his native Guadeloupe on his 21st birthday, five years after his daring escape by sea which had almost cost him his life. And, despite his young age, he was already a seasoned aviator. It wasn’t long before he became recognized for his extraordinary talent and coolheadedness under pressure-attributes which would follow him for the rest of his aviation career.
Soon after, he became a pilot for the Compagnie Aerienne Antillaise, or CAA, which had been founded by another regional aviation pioneer, Remy de Haenen. Jose remained with CAA for three more years before returning to Guadeloupe and starting his own flying club. He sometimes juggled numerous jobs at the same time: as flight instructor, air traffic controller, even assistant airport manager. In 1950, he acquired his first airplane, a PJ-16. From that point on, there was no turning back. He was finally working for no one else but himself. ..."
Laurent Laloup le samedi 22 décembre 2018 Contribution au livre ouvert de José Marie Auguste Georges Dormoy | |
