Buck McNair
Canadian Second World War flying ace
Group Captain Robert Wendell "Buck" McNair, (15 May 1919 – 15 January 1971) was a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) flying ace of the Second World War, with 16 or 16.5 victories and five probables.
Early life
NcNair was born on 15 May 1919 in Springfield, Nova Scotia, the son of railroad engineer Kenneth Frank McNair (1891–1973) and Hilda May (née Grimm; 1898–1983). The family moved to North Battleford, Saskatchewan, during the Great Depression. McNair graduated from high school in North Battleford in 1937 and went to work as a ground wireless (radio) operator for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Natural Resources.
Second World War
Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, McNair enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1940 and attended training schools No. 1 ITS in Toronto, No. 7 EFTS in Windsor and No. 31 SFTS in Kingston. He graduated as a pilot on 24 March 1941 and was posted to No. 411 Squadron RCAF at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire, England, in June 1941.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Buck McNair” as canadian Second World War flying ace. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as canadian Second World War flying ace. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18737172. VIAF identifies the subject as 41348224. The Library of Congress control number is nb2002059664. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1971, 1891 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Buck McNair” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.