Excerpt From "Beyond the Glory" about World War II
Among the thousands who came to Canada to swell the ranks of BCATP instructors was Charles Purcell. Even though he had been born in the farming country of Parker, South Dakota, his ancestors (on both sides family) had made the "run for homesteads" in Oklahoma Territory in 1893. In 1930, sixteen-year-old Charlie Purcell had spotted a First World War Curtiss Jenny circling near Parker. When the Aircraft landed, Purcell gave the pilot directions to the airfield at Sioux City, Iowa. In return, Charlie offered his last five dollars from summer camp allowance and asked the barnstormer for a joy ride. That flight, complete with rolls, loops and spins, convinced Purcell he was going to be a pilot."When World War II broke out," recounts Purcell, "I immediately wrote to Ottawa, telling them what a hot pilot I was. (I didn't bother telling them I only had about forty hours flying.) They wrote back saying they couldn't recruit outside the Empire, but if l just happened to be in Canada, to drop in and talk."
Charles and the plane named for his wife, Lois
The Clayton Knight Committee was created to help people like Charlie Purcell. From the original hotel room in New York City, the committee had expanded to branch offices in hotels in Spokane, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Memphis. In time, the CKC hired secretaries and recruiter-interviewers. However, Charlie Purcell's first request for assistance to get to Canada was turned down because the committee required a minimum of 200 hours of flying experience.

'I had about given up' Purcell says, 'when one evening at a local dance hall when I was tending bar, a young fellow walked up introduced himself and told me he was ferrying Cessna Cranes to Winnipeg, He advised me there were thousands of Americans in Canada now, and you didn't lose your American citizenship by joining the RCAF. He said if I interested, he'd stop overnight on his next trip and fly me up to Winnipeg with him.

"So, next trip the pilot, Prentice Cleaves called saying he was in town and would leave about ten o'clock the next morning. I met him at the airport and we flew into Winnipeg, got a hotel room where he had a few RCAF pilots over for a drink of bourbon. I sat with my mouth agape, listening to the stories and names I'd read about. Here were guys who had flown with them and knew them personally.

"One officer told me he knew the recruiting officer, a Group Captain Baskerville, and would call him to set up an appointment for me the next morning. He told me how to get to the office, told me not to get in line but rather to walk right up to the front and tell them I had an appointment... As I approached the desk, a sergeant came over and rather haughtily asked my business. His manner changed when I told him I had the appointment. He alerted GIG Baskerville and showed me into his office. He was a small RAF type with a handlebar moustache... He told me he could give me a sergeant rating and start me out, after the Instructors' Course at Trenton as an elementary instructor." Purcell refused the offer sayings 'I want to fly the big stuff"

Charles Purcell was shipped to Manning Depot in Toronto, where his flying career was briefly sidetracked while he performed as a member of a precision drill team that put on at nightly show in the fall at the Canadian National exhibition grandstand. Purcell enjoyed an advantage over other LACs, since the team was excused from reveille and KP. Next, he weathered ITS in Toronto and even the Selection Day tribunal which recommended that, if he didn't make the grade at EFTS, he be washed out and sent to Air Observer School.

When he reached No. 20 EFTS Oshawa, "it was December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor day. The non Americans at the station kidded us, saying, 'Well, now you Yanks will get into the war, too." I had no idea where Pearl Harbor was." Unlike the 1,500 Americans who immediately repatriated, Charlie Purcell remained in Canada with the BCATP as an SFTS instructor, stayed with the RCAF when he went overseas in 1943, and eventually flew "the big stuff"
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