THE VISION
The idea for the site came about as a result of a conversation between Flt/Lt Marshall Johnson and Kevin Crawford of London Canada over drinks one day. Marshall recognized that those who made it home from the war were the trustees of the memories of friends and comrades who "did not" and he felt that there should be some sort of a repository whereby the veterans could pool their memories for the benefit of future generations. Through this, the idea for the web site was born. While Marshall did not know the internet from a fish net, he quickly grasped the concept of it and how it could be used to track down the veterans and their families from around the world. Something that hitherto would have been a virtual impossibility.
In the spirit of great teamwork, whereby Marshall provided the Scotch and Kevin did the work, it took about a year or so to gather sufficient information and to complete the initial construction, following which the site was officially launched on 17 February 2003. It was an immediate success and letters started pouring in from around the world. The thousands of hours of typing, editing and research that has gone into it since is simply staggering to reflect back on.
Perhaps even more staggering is looking ahead down the road yet to go because what is currently on the site is but the tiniest fraction of the Squadron's history and the personnel who served on it. Nonetheless it is a start, but with time running out, there is an even greater urgency to track down those veterans who are left before it's too late. Looking even further down the road, once the information has been gathered, how do we preserve it so that long after we are all gone it is "forever" available to future generations.
One of the most unique things about the site, and maybe it's the first in the world, is the concept of joint or family ownership. ie: no one person or Corporation owns it. We all do as friends and family of the squadron - the rights to which are to pass down through the generation of our families to come. (note that this applies to the site as a whole - individual contributions will always remain the personal property / copyright of the contributor).
