Marville France

The Fireballs

CE "Chuck" Keating

Although we had adopted the name Fireballs, up until then we had been flying our four Sabre 2s in standard squadron markings. Our request for a red paint scheme had fallen on deaf ears. There had been no reply from Air Division HQ - but at least they hadn't said NO! I therefre decided to approach our station commander, G/C AC Hull, personally with the request.

"Chuck Keating came to me one day and said that our team would like to have their aircraft painted in some distinctive colour. The USAF and French teams that were usually performing at the same events as us had been painted fancy colours, and we looked like country cousins without a paint scheme. He suggested fire-engine red as a colour, as it would stand out against the blue sky and/or white clouds. I agreed. - AC Hull."

So, with our intrepid squadron servicing NCO in charge, Flight Sergeant Phil Perry made all haste to paint the team red. At the time, we were temporarily based at 4 Wing while the Zweibrucken runways were under repair. We managed a few unofficial display practices over open country (now with Bill on the right wing) and then tucked the aircraft away in trees at 4 Wing to await our performance for the CAS, Air Marshal Curtis.

On September 17th, the reviewing stand was full of brass as they awaited our performance - when we taxied and poked our red noses out of the trees there was apparently a bit of apolexy from the upper ranks. Unauthorized show of initiative and all that! (As Chester Hull recalls, In addition to the CAS, the AOC (A/V/M Campbell and the SASO (G/C Pollard) were there. When the AOC noticed the colour of our team, he quietly turned to Pollard and asked "What do you think of the colour of the team" Mike replied (I think facetiously), Makes them look like a Russian team. With that response, the AOC said "Tell them they have 24 hours to get it off!. As it was a lot harder to take off than it was to put on, and only 24 hours to do so, I had some pretty unhappy airmen."

After the CAS's inspection there was of course the inevitable mess dinner. I had been given the word that the paint scheme was a goner since RED was a communist colour and might startle the locals. "Not so" said I, RED is Canadian - witness our fire engines, the Montreal Canadiens hockey uniforms, the Liberal Party and the Red Ensign, well known in Europe through two world wars. To no avail, the colour had to go, which it did before the next performance. The only picture ever taen of the red aircraft together was by bursing sister Jeannie Hallowell, a still photo of the aircraft parked in the 4 Wing dispersal area.

Reprinted from "A Tradition of Excellence - Canada's Airshow Team Heritage" courtesy Dan Dempsey. - Web Site -