I found an old VHS tape in a box yesterday. The label on it said, “Larry’s Grad Speech 1993” in Dad’s writing. I put it into the old TV/VCR combo that we have at our Mameo Cabin and watched the grainy image of myself looking significantly younger than I do now.

That year I had been invited by North Peace Senior Secondary School’s graduating class to be a guest speaker at their graduation ceremony. Although it was a huge honour to be asked, the crowd was a big one and this Montney boy was painfully nervous. Thankfully, I was joined at the microphone by a good friend, and great teacher, Donna Sheh. At the time, Donna and I were each working at one of the two junior high schools in Fort St. John. She was the art teacher at Bert Bowes and I was vice-principal at Dr. Kearney.

During our speech, we took turns reminiscing about members of the grad class as we’d known them during their junior high years. They were a particularly memorable group. At one point during our presentation, we referred to them as risk takers and then each gave a few examples. One of the grads that I referred to as a risk taker that day had been accepted into the military and had dreams of being a fighter pilot. It was that part of my speech that made me remember this story… (here is a 30 second clip).

 

 

Dave Pletz was a kid that everyone liked. While he worked hard at every aspect of his schooling, made the honour roll and all of that stuff, what I remember most was that he seemed to avoid the traditional junior high cliques and was inclusive of everyone. I also remember seeing him, on several occasions, out running with his dad who was a member of the RCMP.

I remember receiving a call from the Royal Roads Military College in Victoria. I was asked if I could provide a personal reference for Dave. A few days later an officer showed up in my office in full uniform. We met for almost an hour. I remember telling him, bottom line, that Dave was about as good as it gets.

Sometime later, I was standing in line at the grocery store where Dave worked part-time. He rushed up to me with a big smile on his face, thanked me for the reference, and announced that he’d been accepted into Royal Roads. I said that was wonderful news and congratulated him. Then I asked him what he hoped to do as a member of the armed forces. He told me he wanted to fly fighter jets. I said good luck, and then cockily added that maybe he could give me a ride someday. He smiled again and said he would. As you might imagine, as top notch as Dave was, I couldn’t help but think his fighter pilot dream may be a bit ambitious.

The years went by…

To make a long story short, Dave came back to Fort St. John to take part in the annual Air Show. He was flying a fighter jet.

I was unable to attend the airshow, but some of my teacher friends were. One of them came to see me soon after and, although I may never know whether or not he was pulling my leg, he said he saw Dave there. He also told me that Dave was hoping I’d be there so he could take me for the ride he’d promised. On one hand, I was disappointed, on the other, relieved!

Dave went on to become a Lieutenant Colonel and flew CF-18s in Eastern Europe for which he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. Governor General Julie Payette made the presentation at Rideau Hall in 2018.

“Lieutenant-Colonel Pletz deployed to Romania and Lithuania from May 2014 to January 2015 in response to the escalating crisis in Ukraine. The excellence with which he handled his assigned diplomatic, mentoring and training duties ensured increased operational capability with a key NATO partner. In particular, Lieutenant-Colonel Pletz’ remarkable leadership, dedication and operational performance during the Baltic Air Policing mission in Lithuania resulted in significant operational successes for Canada in support of NATO operations, thereby solidifying military co-operation within Eastern Europe.”

Dave isn’t the only success story to come out of the Class of ’93. Like Donna and I said in our speech all those years ago, they were a memorable group of kids.

PS: It is interesting, and a tad scary, to think that the “kids” in that grad class, including Dave, are now several years older than I was on the day I spoke at their ceremony. Yikes!