Milt Harradence

Asa Milton "Milt" Harradence (1922 – February 28, 2008) was a colourful, controversial Canadian criminal lawyer, pilot, politician and judge of the Court of Appeal of Alberta.

Harradence was born in Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan and earned his law degree at the University of Saskatchewan. His aggressive nature saw him become middleweight boxing champion of the University of Saskatchewan. His brother, Clyne Harradence, graduated in law at the same time and was in partnership with John Diefenbaker before Diefenbaker became Prime Minister.

From 1941 to 1943, during World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). It was during his service that he was wrongfully "cashiered" for performing aerobatics with a Bristol Bolingbroke bomber-trainer, "broken" from the RCAF and sent to Alaska as a member of the Canadian Army. After the war he successfully overturned his "cashiering," had his flying status and honourable record renewed and moved to Calgary, Alberta to practise law.

Milt flew with 403 City of Calgary Squadron, RCAF for a number of years. In 1960 Lynn Garrison, also a pilot with 403 Squadron, obtained the contract to ferry 75 P-51 Mustang aircraft, retired from RCAF service, to their new owners in New York City. Milt Harradence would take time off from his law practise to accompany Garrison on the trips. Flying without radios, most of the time, they navigated by following the CPR railroad tracks eastward. Some of the flights were very exciting. He and Garrison acquired two Mustangs as part of their compensation and registered them as CF-LOR and CF-LOQ, the first of their type registered in Canada. Harradence loved to do low-level aerobatics and participated in many airshows across Canada and the United States. He and Garrison had a long term relationship with the founders of the Confederate Air Force in Texas. Milt would trade his Mustang for a DeHavilland Vampire jet, obtained from New York by Garrison. This would be traded for Garrison’s Canadair F-86 which Harradence flew as CF-AMH, for a short time, before retiring from the aviation game in 1967.

...
Wikipedia