In Plain Site

About the Book:

In Plain Site is the first life-cycle biography of a Second World War air training facility in Canada. It begins by locating the Royal Air Force (RAF) station at Caron, Saskatchewan in the debates surrounding air training in Canada, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and the UK’s plans to relocate its primary air training to Canada. It offers a detailed social and geographical history of the Caron site as well as the herculean efforts to acquire, erect, and continuously modify its facilities. Based on interviews as well as meticulous archival research in Canada and overseas, In Plain Site provides a comprehensive chronicle of Caron’s air training operations, after-hours activities, supporting agencies, and the struggles of its RAF personnel to make sense of the Canadian prairies. In Plain Site concludes with an account of the exemplary service rendered at Caron, the sudden termination of its operations, and its purchase by the Briercrest Bible Institute in 1946. In its final chapter, In Plain Site argues that what went on at Caron is reflective of a conceptual realignment that has had the effect of undermining the civilian–military distinction. Supplemented by numerous photos and extensive endnotes, In Plain Site offers a compendium of Canadian and Allied wartime achievements, all of which ought to be brought back into plain sight.


About the Author:

Debut aviation historian Joel From, PhD, was raised in Caronport, Saskatchewan where he spent his youth living, playing, and working on the former RAF airbase at Caron. After earning degrees in Canada and the United States, he returned to Briercrest College (and the Caron site) as a professor of philosophy and humanities. During the past decade, he developed an avid interest in the former airbase and its intriguing history. This book is the result. He and his wife, Rebecca, have three adult children and live in Caronport. He can be reached at [email protected].