This story is part of a past edition of the Comox Valley Record’s Trio Magazine, published quarterly and available throughout the Comox Valley. The spring edition is available at the Record office (407D Fifth St.) and at businesses throughout the Comox Valley.
• • • Blythe Reimer was destined to fly; little did she know she would be a Canadian trailblazer.
These days, the Comox resident spends her workdays running her restaurant, the Tidal Café, but few people know about her storied - and historic - past.
Capt. Blythe Reimer was the first Canadian woman ever to pilot a CH-124 Sea King helicopter.
While flying for the Canadian Armed Forces wasn’t always a dream of hers, she said it isn’t overly surprising her life choices guided her in that direction.
Both her father and grandfather were military pilots, but it wasn’t until later on that Reimer followed that path.
“I was always in an environment where military aviation was a part of my life,” she said.
Despite that, her entire military career did not even start with flying in mind.
“Me, being the rebel I am, decided to take a different path. I joined the naval reserves. I actually was on course in Esquimalt in the early days when they had just opened combat trades to women. So I became a boatsman. I was super excited that I could drive the boat.”
Reimer said aviation - or the military as a whole - was not in the cards at the time.
“I was going to school to be a lawyer, or maybe to work for external affairs as a translator. I have two degrees - one is in political science, and one is in languages. But I was just coming to graduate university, and I walked by the recruiting centre one day and said to myself, ‘I’m going to sign up to be a pilot.’ ”
From a military career standpoint, Reimer combined the two branches as the Sea King is a twin-engined anti-submarine warfare helicopter designed for shipboard use by Canadian naval forces.
The rest, as they say, is history - Canadian history.
She put her flight hours in mostly at Portage la Prairie, Man., flying a CT-134 Musketeer for about three months, before spending nearly a year training in Moose Jaw, Sask., then back to Manitoba for her specialized rotary training.
“When I first graduated, I met my ship in Hamburg, Germany… the HMCS Nipigon. It was really neat because it was the only ship at that point that had women on it. We did a lot of NATO exercises.
“But most of my time was spent doing Fisheries patrol, and we did. A lot of medevacs from fishing vessels and other search and rescue stuff.”
She said she never really considered her path to be of the trailblazing variety, and although she was aware that she was entering a male-dominated industry, to her it was just a matter of being the best that she could be.
“It was bad enough that you are a woman at that time, doing a typically male job. You don’t want to be noticed any more than you have to be. But I was really lucky that the men who were my cohorts, my peer group, were all just very supportive, very nice.”
Not only was Reimer the first female pilot of a Sea King, she also was part of an all-female crew.
Reimer retired from the Canadian military in 2002, and after some time spent in Aidrie, Alta., she and her family moved to the Comox Valley in 2010. Her husband, Kurt, also a retired military pilot, now flies commercially, for WestJet.
She said there are times when she misses the military life, but it’s in her past.
“I definitely have thought about it, but every time I do, when it comes right down to it, having two pilots in the family, for us, would be a challenge.”
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