From a five-cent raise to 29 years in uniform: Portage veteran Henry Romance reflects on service and remembrance

Portage la Prairie’s Henry Romance made a decision in 1963 that changed the course of his life.

A five-cent raise at a Winnipeg mattress factory took his wage to 95 cents an hour, which convinced him to walk away.

Days later, he spotted recruiting desks on Graham Avenue, climbed the stairs, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. It was the start of a 29-year, three-day military career that took him from Churchill to Germany and, eventually, back home to Portage.

“I joined up the Air Force on May 14th,” Romance says. “I did my allegiance to the Queen on May 25th and took a CN train to Quebec for boot camp.” He remembers the numbers as clearly as the dates: recruit pay at $114 gross every two weeks - “a four-dollar raise” from what he’d been making - and spending that first two-week paycheque during Montreal’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste weekend.

Boot camp, Churchill, and a polar bear on the airfield

Romance completed a 10-week boot camp at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in 1963, returned briefly to Portage, then went on to basic training in Trenton, Ont.

In November 1963, he was posted to Churchill, where he worked until August 1964 as the northern complex wound down.

Working alone on eight-hour shifts, he says a rumoured polar bear roaming the airfield made for some tense nights. “I was working by myself, so an eight-hour shift was stressful — obviously a bear’s snack,” he says.

A short stop in Winnipeg led to five years in Halifax and three years in Summerside, P.E.I., followed by another quick Halifax stint and four years in Germany.

He returned to Halifax around 1980 for three more years before a posting to CFB Shilo with the artillery - a curveball outside his core trade - and then to Portage in April 1986.

A career in weather, and a constant presence on Remembrance Day

By the time he retired on May 29, 1992, he had advanced to sergeant as a meteorological technician — “in the weather business,” as he puts it. “At 4:20 I was a Sergeant; at 4:25 I was a ‘Mr.’”

Romance has never really stopped doing weather. He still shares local observations by email and provides updates to PortageOnline.

“Yes, I send them out,” he says with a laugh, recalling a 2019 studio interview “one after the other” with then-host Randy Lilley.

Even before hanging up the uniform, he was drawn toward service at the Royal Canadian Legion. Recruited by a colleague who wouldn’t take no for an answer, he joined in the fall of 1991.

That makes 34 years of Legion membership in 2025, a span that saw him handle portfolios like membership and serve as Sergeant-at-Arms (2014–16) and Colour Party Commander.

“I’ve attended almost every single Remembrance Day service since ’92,” he says. “For me, it was something I needed to do.”

Why remembrance still matters

Asked why November 11 remains important, Romance pauses.

“It brings sometimes tears to my eyes,” he says. “You’ve got these young children, 20, 21, 22 years, and they go off to Europe and they lose their lives. Mind you, we’ve got the freedom.”

He believes schools “could do a lot more,” but he’s seen bright moments up close; from a volunteer stint at Fort la Reine School’s breakfast program to fielding questions from Grade 1 and 2 students about grandparents who served.

What he hopes Portagers do on Remembrance Day is simple: show up, connect, and remember together, noting, “Basically, it’s the camaraderie. That’s the bottom line.”

As for the military itself, he notes today’s recruiting challenges and looser standards on grooming and appearance compared to the haircuts and strict discipline of the 1960s.

However, he doesn’t dwell on the contrast. His focus is on the people; the friends he made across three branches, the Portage community he returned to in 1986, and the veterans he still meets at the Legion’s weekly meat draw.

“I still go twice a week at least,” Romance says. “Fridays for sure.”

And as the community marked another Remembrance Day today at 11 AM, the sergeant who became “Mr. Romance” at 4:25 p.m. on a spring Friday in 1992 was there again — shoulder to shoulder, remembering those who never made it home.