Canada's D-Day June 6, 1944: A Perspective 70 Years later
Richard Rohmer has enjoyed a lifetime of multi-faceted careers in the military, the legal profession, literary, academia and in corporate activities.
Born in 1924 in Hamilton Ontario he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at age 18 during World War II. He became a top RCAP fighter reconnaissance for the Army with 430 Squadron, D-Day, Battles of Normandy, Belgium and Holland.
On July 17, 1944 on a Mustang low reconnaissance south east of Caen, he caught Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in his staff car and was called into Group Control Centre which sent in the spitfire that shot up the car severely wounding Rommel and eliminated him for the rest of the war.
Rohmer took part in the liberation of France, Belgium and Holland, completed 135 operational mission tours and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He returned to the Air Force during the Cold War in 1952 and 1953 and commanded 400 and 411 Vampire Jet fighter squadrons.
In 1970 he returned to 411 Squadron as first Honorary Lieutenant Colonel appointed to the Air Force and flew as line pilot captain I the unit’s singer engine Otter aircraft leading the first Arctic operation to Ellesmere Island in the summer of 1972. In 1975 he was promoted to Brigadier-General and appointed Senior Air Reserve Advisor.
In 1980 he was appointed Commander of the Order of Military Merit and left the military effective February 1981. He served as Chair of the 60th Anniversary of D –Day and in 2013 was named by the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of Veterans Affairs as special advisor on the D-Day commemorative events for the upcoming 70th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2014.
Outside his military service, he was called to the Bar in 1951 and was a specialist in land use and transportation law. He was preeminent as counsel in the development, rezoning and official plan cases involving Flemingdon Park, Toronto, Bramalea, the Ontario Science Centre, counsel for CN and CP to change the Official Plan of Toronto from 185 acres of rail around Union Station to high density residential commercial and other uses including the building of the CN Tower. He continues to practice law with his Toronto area firm of Rohmer and Fenn.
He served as Chancellor of the University of Windsor from 1978 to 1996 and chaired the Royal Commission on Book Publishing between 1970 and 1972.
He is the author of 28 fiction and non fiction books including the bestselling Ultimatum, Exxoneration and Separation. He is the Honorary Deputy Commissioner of the OPP, Honorary Chief of Toronto Emergency Medical Services, Honorary Chief of the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs, Honorary Vice President of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and Honorary Chief of the Collingwood Fire Service in the town where he and his supportive wife of 64 years Ann reside. He has two daughters, Ann Rohmer a TV personality and Catherine, a lawyer. He is a licenced pilot