{"id":1390,"date":"2012-04-29T21:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T03:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?page_id=1390"},"modified":"2015-03-23T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T20:23:42","slug":"mother-goose","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?page_id=1390","title":{"rendered":"Patron 408 “Goose” Squadron Association"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother Goose<\/span><\/h2>\n

by Paul Nyznik<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Molly Rayner or Mother Goose, in her civilian clothes \u2014 Linton on-Ouse, 1943.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Royal Air Force Corporal Molly Rayner was posted to 408 (Goose) Sqn RCAF soon after it was formed in Yorkshire in 1941, there began a relationship that has endured for almost 60 years. With her friendly, caring manner, her earthy humor and dedication to those who flew in the bomber squadron\u2019s Hampdens, Halleys and Lancs, she quickly earned the sobriquet \u201cMother Goose.\u201d It is a title she loves and wears proudly at every reunion 408 has held since 1968.<\/p>\n

As Henrietta May Morgan, \u201cMolly\u201d was born in Maestag, South Wales, in 1919. \u201cSo English was not my first language,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, some say that I still don\u2019t speak it.\u201d At 18, she began training as a nurse at the White-croft Mental Hospital on the Isle of Wight, but the war broke out just as she completed her preliminary examinations, and Molly decided to put her medical
\ncareer on hold and joined the RAF \u2014 as a cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater, when they found out about my training as a nurse, they wanted to reclassify me, but I was happy working in the kitchen and refused to remuster.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the squadron\u2019s 1999 reunion in Ottawa she was asked to reminisce about her life on a wartime bomber squadron. Molly was off and running: \u201cI was posted to 408 in Balderton, moved with the squadron to Leeming, and in August 1943 to Linton-on-Ouse. Nelles Timmerman was my first CO, Fred Sharp the last. In between there were seven others, including three who were killed on ops.
\n\u201cMT driver Phyllis Cowie of Etobicoke, Ont, Rita ReIf, from somewhere in BC, and I were among the first of a very few females on the squadron. At that time, early in the war, young girls who joined the military were not well thought of by the general public. We were routinely described as: Ground-sheet, airmen for the use of…<\/p>\n

\u201cI always tried to help the boys, sewing buttons on their clothes and mending their socks. I had to stand on a box to serve the boys their favorite foods \u2014 powdered eggs, bangers and mash, bread pudding and their very favorite, Brussels sprouts!
\n\u201cThe Americans had these big rolls of bologna, which we had never seen before, so we called it \u2018horse c\u2014k.\u2019 Now I think it\u2019s referred to as \u2018Newfie steak\u2019.
\n\u201cWe had a discipline sergeant nicknamed \u2018Night-Fighter Nolan\u2019 because he used to sneak around on his bike, trying to catch the boys doing something wrong. This guy wore wings on his pyjamas! One night he and his bike were dumped into the River Ouse \u2014 and no one was ever charged.
\n\u201cSometimes, when the kitchen was closed, Nolan would demand that I prepare a meal for him. When I repeatedly refused, he had me transferred late in \u201844 to Hythe, Kent. It was there I met my husband, RCAF radar tech Don Rayner.
\n\u201cBecause I neither smoked nor drank, I was cheap to take out. The boys \u2014 Tommy Dimma, Ralph Shillington, Grant Willis and Bob Pridday \u2014 would meet me in the guardhouse to go into York to Betty\u2019s Bar. Once there, if they picked up a girl, they would give me most of their money to look after before taking off.<\/p>\n

\u201cTired of the Yanks always asking, \u2018Any gum, chum?,\u2019 one day we gave them our entire supply of Feena Mints, a laxative that looked like a pack of Wrigley\u2019s Spearmint. What a laugh we had for the next couple of days!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever any of the local girls would call the mess, looking for one of the boys (sometimes in desperation, it seemed) we always told them he had been posted and we didn\u2019t know where. \u201cI was discharged on compassionate grounds. In other words, I was pregnant. They should have called it passionate grounds!\u201d
\nIndelibly etched in her memory are the men, most still in or barely out of their teens, who were among the squadron\u2019s 936 killed, missing or captured. Virtually taking sole responsibility for the well-being of the bomber crews, Molly would remain on duty in the kitchen until the last aircraft had returned after a raid, serving the exhausted crews a welcoming breakfast of bacon and eggs. There were poignant moments.
\n\u201cI knew that while relationships between members of individual aircraft crews were often very close, it was not always so between them and the crews of other aircraft \u2014 whether from 408 or from a sister squadron sharing the same field. That was because the deep regret at losing a close, personal friend could be crushing, and so, as a defence mechanism, they would try to hide behind a display of bravado.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI recall early one morning the crews were returning from a sortie, one by one, landing, being debriefed, then making their way to the mess hall.\u00a0 I noticed this young lad, hanging back, his eyes sweeping the room. \u2018Molly,\u2019 he asked, \u2018has Dan of \u201cV\u201d Vicki been in yet?\u201d \u2018No,\u2019 I replied, \u2018that crew has been reported missing.\u2019 You could see the agony in his eyes \u2014 but only for a split second. Recovering, he asked, \u2018Well then, can I have his egg?\u201d<\/p>\n

Although diminutive in stature, Molly stands among the tallest in service to her community, as is evidenced by the citizenship awards which grace the walls of her Brampton, Ont, home. To mark the squadron\u2019s 60th birthday, plans are afoot to hold a monster reunion in Edmonton in 2001. \u201cMother Goose\u201d is already hatching plans to be there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(Ed note: Paul Nyznik of Nepean in suburban Ottawa is a former navigator with 408 Sqn.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother Goose by Paul Nyznik When Royal Air Force Corporal Molly Rayner was posted to 408 (Goose) Sqn RCAF soon after it was formed in Yorkshire in 1941, there began a relationship that has endured for almost 60 years. With her friendly, caring manner, her earthy humor and dedication to those who flew in the bomber squadron\u2019s Hampdens, Halleys and Lancs, she quickly earned the sobriquet \u201cMother Goose.\u201d It is a title she loves and wears proudly at every reunion 408 has held since 1968. As Henrietta May Morgan, \u201cMolly\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":79,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1390","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2842,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1390\/revisions\/2842"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}