The Story of Fred Douglas Whitehouse, WWII RCAF Veteran This story has been shared by Cheryl Burchell, the daughter of Fred Douglas Whitehouse, a Royal Canadian Air Force Veteran of World War II. Fred hardly told anyone his story of his wartime experience because it disturbed him so. Upon his death his daughter shared it with her three brothers and grandchildren old enough to understand. She decided to share his story, so others knew what her father went through at the age of eighteen as an RCAF airman in training in 1943. Fred Douglas Whitehouse Fred Douglas Whitehouse was born March 1, 1925, in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. At the age of 18 Fred enlisted in the RCAF, then proceeded to Kingston, Ontario for his initial training. He did exceedingly well and achieved high marks on most everything. A few months into his training he became extremely ill and was hospitalized for weeks. The doctors had no idea what his malady was. When he seemed to eventually improve, although still very weak, they released him from the hospital. The RCAF Training School granted him a few weeks of convalescent leave. Travelling on his own, he took a train to Saint John, New Brunswick. He was then supposed to catch the St. John - Digby Ferry and be met by his father, Frederick Leighton Whitehouse, to drive home to Yarmouth, NS. When he was sick in the Kingston, Ontario, hospital, although unknown at the time, Fred had rheumatic fever and with this illness there is a set-back some weeks later where the person becomes dizzy, feverish, and hallucinates. These symptoms occurred about the time Fred arrived in Saint John, NB. He was late to catch the ferry that day and found a boarding house for the night. Everything hit him fast and the lady who ran the boarding house called an ambulance and Fred was taken to hospital. The medical staff could not fathom what was going on and they had no information about his hospital stay in Kingston, nor did they know he was an enlisted airman. Fred was unable to talk or able to explain his medical situation. The next day the hospital transferred him to the local insane asylum. There he was confined for seven or eight months. During this time, he was strapped to a gurney in the basement cells, underwent insulin shock therapy, witnessed an 'inmate' kill a fellow inmate and that area of the asylum was plagued by rats. He told his daughter they would crawl over everyone and if you were strapped to a gurney, like he was, you could not fight them off. For Fred, he was in a living hell. Meantime, his father wondered why he was not on the Digby Ferry when he met the ferry in Digby. He drove back to Yarmouth and started making inquiries. Unable to get any answers, he was worried and furious. After months of badgering the military, his father got an answer. Fred had been on the train from Kingston, and he had reached Saint John, NB. That is where the military lost track of him and did not have a clue what had become of him. With that information, his father left immediately and travelled to Saint John, NB. There he spent two weeks collaborating with local police but eventually he was the one who tracked down the rooming house where Fred had stayed for that one night. This led his father to the hospital and then to the insane asylum. When Fred was brought upstairs to a waiting area and his father walked in, Fred would not let go of his father and sobbed for some time. His father was allowed to sign Fred out of the asylum and take him back home to Yarmouth. A few weeks later Fred was given an honourable discharge from the Royal Canadian Air Force. Fred married Amy Lillian Sanders on July 6, 1946, at Deerfield, Yarmouth County, and they had four children, a daughter and three sons. At the time of his marriage, he was 21 and was working as a Sanitary Inspector for the Health Department. Fred suffered nightmares every night of his life, which put his wife in a difficult position at times and it was a bit scary for his four children as well. They all learned how to manage Fred when he was having a nightmare, which included sleep walking. These persisted every night of his life and he lived into his nineties. When he was in his fifties, Fred admitted himself to Camp Hill Veteran Hospital in Halifax for three weeks. There, they ran every test available at the time and in doing so, finally produced some answers for him. They found a scar on his heart from the rheumatic fever and were finally able to give him information as to what went so awry during his training. Fred came away from that hospital stay with more answers than he had ever had before, and he was granted a Veteran's pension. Before his death in February 2016, his wife and their only daughter were the only two people privy to this story and all the facts. In 1943 Fred Whitehouse enlisted in the RCAF, driven by a desire to serve his country during the war. Despite his commitment, he faced an unfortunate fate – he never completed his training, he never flew an aircraft, and he never engaged in combat overseas. But the unforgettable experience in those months following his enlistment would remain with him for all the years of his life.