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Major Karen
Breeck and famous Snowbirds Tutor jet
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Last August Major Karen Breeck
was heading out to her new posting in Moose Jaw as physician
to the famous aerobatic squadron, the Snowbirds. She heard
they were going to be performing at an air show in Thunder
Bay so she decided to make a pit stop on the drive out
from Ottawa. It turned out to be a fateful decision. As
she was standing with the crowd watching the team warm
up, one of the planes suddenly veered toward the ground
and disappeared at high speed behind the trees. A pilot
was down.
Major Breeck was drafted into duty
there and then.
Someone tossed her a uniform and
in an instant she was transformed from civilian to soldier.
They rushed out to find the pilot, not knowing if he
was alive or dead.
The scene they found was terrible
— the magnificent Tutor jet was nothing but a mangled,
burning mess of steel. But to everyone's relief, Snowbird
8, Captain Andy Mackay, had managed to eject before
the plane hit the ground. Major Breeck and others treated
him for minor injuries on the spot and then transferred
him to the local hospital.
It was quite a beginning.
WING
AND A PRAYER
As flight and wing surgeon at Moose Jaw's huge 15 Wing
base, Major Breeck is responsible not only for the health
of the 85-strong Snowbirds team, but also everyone else
on the base. 15 Wing is home to the NATO Flying Training
program for Canadian and international pilots. Luckily
she's got a team of medics and two local civilian doctors
to help.
Major Breeck's first experience
with military planes was in 1999 while she was studying
at the University of Toronto's aerospace medicine course.
Completing her first solo cross-country flight in a
Cessna 150 completely changed the then-rookie's perspective.
"I have a lot more respect for pilots now," she remarked.
Now she's one of them. She goes
up in the air with the Snowbirds team as often as she
can and loves to fly. "There are three places where
I am away from the normal physician distractions of
cell phones, pagers and emails: scuba diving, assisting
in an operating room and up flying."
So what's it like up there? "Flying
with the Snowbirds is an indescribable visual experience.
You feel like you should be able to just reach out and
touch the wings of the aircraft beside you, in front
of you, behind you..." recounts Major Breeck dreamily.
"It's like the best rides at Canada's Wonderland, Calaway
Park and Disneyland all put together into one."
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Snowbird flying machines
The Snowbirds' past has been
riddled with dramatic accidents, including spectacular
mid-air collisions. The squadron has been flying
the same jets, the beloved Canadian-built CT-114
Tutor, since 1971. But the pilots and everyone
connected with the team insists the planes are
safe and there are no plans to replace the 35-year
old jets for now.
According to the Air Forces
website, "The basic Tutor is only slightly modified
for use by the Snowbirds. Modifications include:
a smoke generating system, a unique paint scheme
for added crowd appeal, and a highly tuned engine
to enhance engine response in low level flying."
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In fact Major Breeck says flying
is a big part of her job. "It's very important for the
doc to fly with the team," she explains. "For reasons
of flight safety, every member of the team has to be
100% fit. To properly assess that fitness you must not
only know and understand the stresses of their jobs
but also gain their trust to talk openly and honestly
with you about any concerns or problems they may have."
"Part of my personal gold standard
in determining a patient's fitness is the question 'Would
I fly with them?'" she continues. "It's rare that a
doctor's decision on workplace fitness can have such
a direct and immediate potential impact on our own lives.
It's always a humbling experience to place your life
in the hands of your patients. "
Flying those old Tutor jets is
extremely physically demanding. "Flying with the Snowbirds
is a workout," explains Major Breeck. "They repetitively
pull anywhere from minus 3 to plus 5 "G" (or five times
their body weight). Each pilot must be physically and
mentally fit to withstand these acceleration "G'' Forces
and maintain 100% concentration on the job at hand during
their amazing formation manoeuvres with nine planes."
Major Breeck is well aware of
the popular perceptions of air force pilots, and she
says that the "right stuff" stereotype isn't completely
unwarranted. In fact, she says, physicians and pilots
are pretty alike in that regard. "The similarity between
the two professions gives me a unique insight into what
I do," she says.
But Major Breeck insists that even
though the Snowbird's current team of pilots are all
men, it's not a macho work environment. "Everyone works
together," she says. "The atmosphere is incredible —
everyone's so professional."
UNLIKELY
RECRUIT
A Calgarian, Major Breeck hadn't seen much of eastern
Canada before heading out to the Rock for university.
"I absolutely fell in love with Newfoundland," she says.
After her BSc she decided to stay on for med school,
which she followed up with master's degrees in occupational
health and women's studies.
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Major Karen
Breeck gears up to take flight
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In a scene straight off a recruiting
poster, Major Breeck describes when she first learned
to love the freedom flying offered. It started on a
quiet Newfoundland lake during med school: "My psychiatry
professor owned a float plane. We would take off in
the early morning and go land on a lake somewhere and
sit there with our Tim Horton's coffee and a doughnut.
Then we'd fly back and do our rounds."
The army recruiters would come
often to campus, looking for people to sign up for The
Medical Officer Training Plan, the tuition-subsidy plan
available for med students in any of the last three
years of study. She was intrigued by some of the non-medical
activities the program opened up, such as flying, diving
and serving at sea. With the float-plane breakfasts
firmly in mind, Karen Breeck joined up.
In 1993 she was selected to do
the flight surgeon course at a state-of-the art facility
in Toronto, which features the only centrifuge in Canada
and a hypo/hyperbaric chamber that can simulate the
deepest "dive" in the world. She later went on to a
University of Toronto Fellowship in Aerospace Medicine
and a residency in the US Air Force in operational aerospace
medicine. She's done tours of duty in far-flung places,
including a month in Honduras with the DART team after
Hurricane Mitch devastated the area.
To make matters even busier, Major
Breeck was also elected president of the Federation
of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC ) at around the same
time she was posted to Saskatchewan. She said she was
particularly honoured the organization chose a military
doctor as its president during 2005, the Year of the
Veteran. She points out that women have always played
an important medical role within the military since
the earliest days of Canada's existence." I feel like
the FMWC is kind of coming full circle," she says.
When she finds a little rare down
time, Major Breeck relaxes with yoga, the piano and
publishing research on aviation medicine. The busy major's
colleagues sing her praises, calling her "hardworking"
and "an amazing woman."
For all the apparent adventure,
glamour and even danger that she seems to have sought
out throughout her career, Major Breeck insists she's
not your typical adrenaline junkie. "Growing up, I wore
glasses and was always sitting and reading," she says.
"It never occurred to me that I'd be flying, it just
didn't seem to fit with my skill set."
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