An excerpt from PREMIERE, a Central Region publication and adapted by Laval Sept 2008

Text by Shannon Soderquist

Jack Prodanuk was Central Region's technical training officer. Jack retired on January 27, 1989 after 31 years with the Department.

It all began in 1957 when Jack took a course at the Manitoba Technical Institute ( Radio operator ). He moved to Melville, Saskatchewan where he lived for the next three and a half years. He heard from a fellow coming out of Churchill, what a great experience it was to work there; so Jack thought he'd give it a try. He was told there was a waiting list for that job and the chances weren't that good of getting on. But within a month Jack got the job and moved to the Churchill Monitoring Station.

He enjoyed this posting thoroughly and stayed for two years. Jack transferred out and took a three month monitoring course in Ottawa before moving back to Melville for approximately three years. He then won a competition in Winnipeg as a Radio Inspector. He was stationed in the field office then moved over to the regional office.

In 1966, he moved to Ottawa where he won a competition at the Ottawa Training Centre as a Technical Training Officer. He remained there for five years where his setting up the Morse Code program and some of the module programs in the recruit training have been among Jack's most creative ideas. The actual coordination of the phase material into a finished project was considered a job well done. His final move came in 1971 when he went back to Winnipeg ( for the last time his wife said ) and took over the Technical Training.

The most memorable event for Jack came when he first started with the Department. He and Irwin Williams ( who was then in command of the inspection section ) had gone north on a training trip. They were between the main highway and the Le Pas Airport, driving one of the Department's small English model cars. They got about three miles down a dark lonely road when the electrical system on the vehicle gave out. NO LIGHTS ! It was too cold ( dead of winter ) and too dark to walk, so they improvised. Irwin took out a flashlight and shone it out the passenger window while Jack drove. They went this way for seven miles.

After a story like that, it's hard to believe that Jack considers himself too placid to do anything crazy.

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