THE RCAF AS SEEN FROM THE GROUND (A WORM'S-EYE VIEW), BOOK ONE: THE WAR YEARS, 1939-1945. Velleman, Alexander. Stittsville (Ont.), Canada's Wings, cl986. 119pp, paper, 19.95, ISBN 0-920002-32-3, Distributed by Canada's Wings, Box 700, Stittsville, Ont., KOA 3GO. CIP Grades 7 and up Reviewed by A.L.F. Greenwood Volume 14 Number 4 1986 July In 1939, Alexander Velleman transferred from the Canadian Army to the Royal Canadian Air Force and became an aircraftman 1st class. In 1966, he retired as a Warrant Officer. This slim paperback is volume one, covering the first part of this career, the war years. Volume two, we are told, will cover 1945-1952. At the time he joined the RCAF, the author was an avid amateur radio buff or ham, and radio communications became his life work. Though the primary task of an air force is to operate in the air, only a small proportion of that force actually becomes airborne. The remainder of the force consists of the unsung heroes who keep the aircrews in the air. This is the story of one group of these workers, the wireless section. As young Velleman was posted from station to station, and rose up the promotion ladder, his story is that of many an RCAF tradesman and gives us a good picture of life in the RCAF ground crews. As the author married before joining the RCAF, an additional perspective is added; the life of a married couple in the airforce. With twenty-one photos and drawings and a four-page glossary of terms and abbreviations, this book can take its rightful place on the shelf of wartime service memoirs, this one of particular interest to vets of the wireless persuasion. A.L.F. Greenwood, Victoria, B.C.