Pilot and Cadet reunite years after serious accident

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Eight years ago, Greg Hermanson broke the rules, and it nearly cost him his life.
Defying his mother’s edict of only one child operating the tractor at a time, Hermanson hung on to the side of the John Deere machinery as his sister took to the wheel.
Shortly after, tragedy hit. A bump in the road forced then 10-year-old Hermanson on the ground, his body enduring the weight of the tractor as one of its wheels crushed his left side. With multiple broken ribs, a shifted heart, and a collapsed lung, his mother Alanna and older brother performed CPR before Captain Greg Curtis landed the STARS helicopter near their farm in Standard.
Then, last Saturday, almost to the day the helicopter was dispatched to save his life, Hermanson and the senior pilot were reunited when Curtis served as the reviewing officer for the 903 Royal Canadian Air Cadets – a program Hermanson aged out from over the weekend.
“It just so happened I was lucky to be the pilot that moved Greg, because I’m lucky to be here and I quite enjoyed it,” said Captain Greg Curtis, senior pilot STARS Air Ambulance. “These kind of organizations have a tendency for young people to be so influenced in terms of their determination and their direction over a period of time, as opposed to just a moment. So you admire that kind of thinking from young people. And I think it speaks volumes to this young man and all these young people.”
For Curtis, who has been flying for the air ambulance service for 30 years, the opportunity to reunite with one of the patients transported in his helicopter are few and far between. Perhaps rarer is the chance to see that patient pursue aviation and be asked to partake in the Air Cadets graduation ceremony.
Yet, Captain Barry Duffield knows Curtis’s presence also served for inspiration among many of the other young cadets in the squardron.
“I think it’s important to have members of the community that the cadets want to emulate,” said Duffield, Commanding officer 903 Royal Canadian Air Cadets. “He flies helicopters and he’s one of the senior captains within STARS. So not only is it great to have him as a mentor to the kids, he also assisted one of the kids before he even became a cadet. I think it’s fantastic. Everything has come full circle.”
Hermanson joined the Cadets after his accident, when his injuries prevented him from continuing to play hockey. Having always been intrigued with aviation, Alanna Hermanson caught her son reading a basic training manual, From the Ground Up, and enrolled him soon after. Once he was part of the squadron, his young age proved him ineligible for the Power Pilot and Gliding Pilot. However, that didn’t stop the young cadet, who participated in the program three years in a row for pure knowledge, before he was eligible to take the exam. According to Duffield, Hermanson’s score was one of the top three he had seen within the squadron over 11 years.
“Flying has always been one of those things that I’ve been wanting to do,” Hermanson said. “It’s one of those childhood dreams that you have when you’re young and you never get around to doing. So I wanted to do that but I knew it was expensive and I didn’t know if I ever could. [Mom] suggested this program and I’ve been here ever since.”
Since becoming a cadet, the deputy squadron commander hadn’t missed a single meeting until three weeks ago, enrolled in the aviation program at Mount Royal, and joined the Hussar Firefighting department. Hermanson was one of two cadets to age out of the program on May 30. The ceremony, which was held at the Strathmore High School, acknowledged all cadets from the 903 Royal Canadian Air Cadets graduating from their levels. With Hermanson aging out of the program, Duffield said the squadron will be required to fill a void.
“He is one of the three to four pillars in the squadron and when you take that away someone needs to replace that,” Duffield said. “People should look to wanting to be him… a good pillar that’s going to be missing from the squadron.”