DID YOU KNOW?
In Tribute to the efforts of this incredible flight, the Fort Vermilion Airport was renamed the "Wop May memorial Airport" on July 15th 2017.
Mercy Flight Plaque
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This plaque is located on an outside wall, at the main entrance of St. Theresa Hospital, in Fort Vermilion. It outlines the saga of the diphtheria outbreak at Little Red River in December 1928. The plaque was first located on a cairn in front of the old hospital. It was dedicated by the St. Theresa Ladies Hospital Auxiliary in 1968.
'Wop' May and Vic Horner made the flight from Edmonton in January 1929, to deliver the antitoxin needed to prevent an epidemic. They flew in an open cockpit aircraft in temperatures that dipped to minus 30 degrees.
The efforts made by local people including Mrs. Bert Logan, William and Bobby Gray, Dr. H.A. Hamman, Francis Bourassa, Joe La Fleur and William Lambert were celebrated at the 75th Anniversary Mercy Flight Reenactment on January 3, 2004. The whole story, as told by Gordon Reid, is below, or Read about it in the "Wop May Chronicles".
