But he won’t really talk.  It hurts, he says.
Interview, April 2005

Mr. Abe Dyck, D-25, 3rd Division.

I went through Holland.  I don’t remember much, except that it was a very nice place.
We were signal-corps, we were doing communications.  We knew all the time where they were.  I don’t know where the Dutch underground was, whether we were ahead of them, or whether they were behind us.  They were very reliable if you got in touch with them, but the signal-corps, we were all over.  We’d give the infantry all the information they needed, to go ahead and fight or backtrack, or go a different route. We were traveling by jeep, 2 or 3 people in the vehicle. We had our army radios.  They had long-range equipment. We didn’t have much time to fool around, we were kept pretty busy. The people are very nice, everything. Some were good, some were not good, just like we expected.  We had our own barracks.  It was wintertime, no snow, though.  It was 1942, I think.
That was pretty well the last place we went. When I was over there, they (the Dutch) were in good health, they were in good shape. We were soldiers on active duty, we weren’t on a picnic. I was 17 at the time, I think.   .....I don’t remember all of that.
I’m a member of the Whitehorse Legion.  We get together in our center once in a while, not a lot.   We went to England.  I’d sooner not discuss all that anyway.

Note:  Mrs. Florence Dyck now continues the interview…
Florence says: we were married in 1969. I was a bus-driver for Pan-Am. I wanted to join the Canadian army, to be an ambulance driver. I worked for the American army; I’ve driven all my life.  I drove a shuttle-car, to drive officers around.  They were making the Alaska Highway.  I was part of the American navy when I worked.  You had to do everything; I used to clean the airport for snow, with a big T-track, and bring the planes in, and let the planes go.  Fly them out and fly them in. I was only 16, too.  You stand with a flag in your hand, and tell them to where to go.  It was a busy airport.  They’d go to Anchorage, Fairbanks, and a lot of American army planes.  I got a nice picture of me and somebody stole it, it was a white uniform with a cap, we had to look like a boy working for the American army at Pan-Am. I didn’t have a rank, I wasn’t in the army. I was just a plain civilian.  They gave me car-mechanic lessons, because there was nobody here then to take care of buses, so I had four busses to take care of.  I was brought up nice, good life…. We got a lady that’s cleaning our motor home, and she does a good job. Abe is very strict; he’s got that army in him yet.   He told me little things, but he won’t really talk.  It hurts, he says. You know, lots of veterans of Abe’s age, old, and thinking of the past, they go funny…you can see it at the Legions. I’m half Clinked and half Scottish. We took care of kids after we retired, we had 18, 19 kids at one time.  We have one left, he was handicapped, but you wouldn’t think so now, we kicked him out of that handicapped stuff.  They all listened, they all left here good. Mostly native kids, they come right out of jail, some of them, and they stay three years with us for their probations’ length.  I train them, cook, sew, I want you to meet us we have a lot of nice friends in Whitehorse. We go out dancing every Friday and Saturday night. You should come and visit us, you can see pictures of Abe when he was in the army, he was good looking.  He’s good.  We both have a past, you know.  We’ve been married before, both of us.  My ex-husband was a veteran, and when he died, Abe was ringing me right away. Abe’s uncle was killed in the Air Force; he was a gunner, Trotsky Good.   I don’t know how you spell that.

Mr. Abe Dyck, D-25, 3rd Division
WWII Veteran
Signal-Corps-Communications
Liberator of the Netherlands

and his Wife:
Mrs Florence Dyck
WWII Veteran
Bus driver for Pan-Am & the American Navy.

Photo:
Mr. Bill Ford, WWII Veteran
trying to call Mr. Abe Dyck. but Mr. Dyck
and his wife are out of town.