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Written by Bill Rowsell on 19 September 2010.



Rachel Lea HeideRachel Lea Heide is an air force historian who specializes in the period from 1916 to 1946.  She attended Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, where she earned a BA (Honours), MA, and PhD in history.  In addition to speaking and publishing on the subjects of air force organization, training, leadership, morale, professionalization, mutinies, accident investigation, and government policy between the First World War and the early Cold War Period, Rachel has written on a variety of topics on present-day defence policy issues

Dr Heide works full time for the Department of National Defence as a Defence Scientist/Strategic Analyst.  She has also instructed distance learning courses in Canadian history and Canadian military history for Algonquin College, Canadian Forces College, and Royal Military College.  In addition to being an Associate Air Force Historian with the Office of Air Force Heritage and History (1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba), Rachel is the Secretary-Treasurer of the CAHS Ottawa Chapter and the Treasurer of the CAHS National.

Dissertation Titles:

BA Thesis (June 1998):  “Fallen Planes – The Cause of Training Accidents at No.5 Bombing and Gunnery School, Dafoe, Saskatchewan”
MA Thesis (November 2000):  “The Politics of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Base Selection in Western Canada”
PhD Thesis (June 2010):  “The Creation of a Professional Canadian Air Force, 1916-1946”

Sample Publications:

  • The Politics of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Base Selection in Western Canada.  Beau-Bassin, Mauritius, Germany:  VDM Publishing House, Ltd, 2009.
  • “After the Emergency – Demobilization Strikes, Political Statements, and the Moral Economy in Canada’s Air Forces, 1919-1946” book chapter in The Insubordinate And The Noncompliant: Case Studies Of Canadian Mutiny And Disobedience, 1920 To Present. Toronto:  Dundurn Press, 2007.
  • “Allies in Complicity: The United States, Canada, and the Clayton Knight Committee’s Clandestine Recruiting of Americans for the Royal Canadian Air Force, 1940-1942" in Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).
  • “60th Anniversary: The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan” commemorative booklet published by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for Veterans’ Week 2000.

Please contact Rachel by email.