Former Moose Jaw Wing Commander dies
Ralph Hamilton Annis, a former commanding officer of Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw (15 Wing) recently died in McAdam, N.B. He was 87.
Annis grew up in McAdam, enrolled in the RCAF at 17 and served as a radar technician until 1950, when he decided to remuster to aircrew. He received his pilot wings in 1951.
He flew the F-86 Sabre with 441 Squadron in North Luffenham, U.K., until mid-1953, when he moved to Zweibrücken, West Germany and served as an instrument instructor until late 1954.
On his return to Canada, he joined the Overseas Ferry Unit, flying F-86 Sabre and T-33 Silver Star jet aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
While with the unit, he set a cross-Canada speed record, flying a Sabre from Vancouver to Halifax in five hours and 30 seconds, annihilating the previous record by an hour and 20 minutes. Over the course of his career in the RCAF, he also flew Vampires and Harvards.
In 1959 and 1960, Annis again flew the F-86, this time as the lead solo pilot with Canada’s aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks, for the first two of their five years of cross-Canada air shows.
After various training and posting he was appointmented as base commander of Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw on Aug. 17, 1973. He took over from Canadian Forces Snowbirds’ founder Col. Owen Bartley “O.B.” Philp. Like his predecessor, Colonel Annis was an outspoken supporter of the relatively new Snowbirds team, having witnessed firsthand the importance of a national aerobatic team. During his tenure as base commander, he played a pivotal role in keeping the Snowbirds alive, culminating in 1974, when he personally lobbied Minister of Na- tional Defence James Richardson (and others) to overturn a recommendation by the Chief of the Defence Staff to disband the team.
His backdoor diplomacy worked and, ultimately, the Snowbirds were awarded permanent squadron status on April 1, 1978, the 54th anniversary of the founding of the RCAF.
His RCAF career also took him to Colorado as deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) Cheyenne Mountain facility, and farther afield, to Egypt, where he served as Deputy Commander of United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) II, established to supervise the ceasefire between Egyptian and Israeli forces and, following the conclusion of the agreements of January 18, 1974, and September 4, 1975. Annis retired from the Air Force at age 48 in 1979.