RAF pilot Christopher Hasler stands outside Buckingham Palace, after collecting his Distinguished Flying Cross from Queen Elizabeth II. (Fiona Hanson/PA/Associated Press)

Flight Lieut. Christopher Hasler was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at Buckingham Palace in London on May 23, 2007, making him the first Canadian to win the medal since the Korean War.

Born in Jasper, Alta., and raised in Halifax, Hasler, 26, tried to enlist in the Canadian air force shortly after he graduated from high school but was turned down. He said he thinks he was considered too young at the time.

But after studying at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick for two years, he applied to the Royal Air Force as a Commonwealth citizen, was accepted, and has been flying Chinook helicopters, the workhorse of the RAF fleet in Afghanistan.

He spoke to the CBC's Harry Forestell at RAF base Odiham in Hampshire, U.K., about his life as a pilot and what it takes to win the DFC

HF: What's it like flying one of these Chinooks?

CH: Well, it's work, it's what you do for a living, so I don't consider it anything different, but it's still a huge rush. Especially when you're out there in the desert, you sometimes get a grin on your face when you're out there and you think about it. So it's completely enjoyable.

HF: Not so enjoyable when you're flying into enemy fire. You've received the DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross] for doing just that in Afghanistan last July. What happened?

CH: There were a couple injured fellows in Sangin. My helicopter was on medevac standby, so we were tasked to go get him. We tried to go in, but as they secured the landing site, unfortunately one of the paras was killed by RPG fire, so we were called off, because the landing site was under quite a lot of fire. So we had to go back and re-plan it. We came up with the idea of flying into an area that is quite tight, especially for such a big helicopter. It was a site which was surrounded by buildings on all three sides, and we had to land with one of the front blades overlapping one of the one-storey buildings, on our back wheels with our front wheels in the air so we wouldn't hit it.

HF: You're flying a helicopter in hostile territory, at what point do you come up with a plan like that?

CH: So much of what we do is planned to the umpteenth degree, however, that wasn't the planned part of it, putting the blades on top of the building, so when it happened, it was just something that had to be done I guess, because we ran out of room. So my co-pilot, who was my boss at the time, asked me, what are you going to do now? and I said I had no idea. So this just sort of happened without either of us really thinking about it. So when we took off, we thought this was something new, something interesting.

HF: There are three other crew in the helicopter as you're attempting this manoeuvre, what did they think?

CH: When it happened they all went really quiet. I wasn't saying much because I was concentrating. We had quite good banter when we got back to base.

HF: The award is in recognition of two missions, what happened in the second one?

Heavy contact

CH: The other event was about a week later during a night insertion into a place north of Sangin. We came under quite heavy contact. It was a dried-up wadi, a river. There were bedded-in enemy positions on either side of about a 200 metre-across wadi, so getting three aircraft in there, about nine or 10 enemy positions flanking you, all firing anything from small arms to RPG and HMG...

HF: Could you see the bullets flying?

CH: Unfortunately you could, it was night and we were flying with NVGs, night vision goggles, and the rounds show up quite well with those, they just streak past in green, so they see them quite a bit, especially the bigger rounds.

HF: What was going through your mind with all those bullets whizzing about?

CH: I certainly didn't have time to think about it, I was concentrating so hard on not crashing, just landing. It was at night, and the wadi-bed was quite dry, so there was a lot of sand and dust kicked up, so you spend most of your time not stoofing it [crashing].

HF: How did you get the news you were being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross?

CH: Just before Christmas Eve I was dragged into the boss's office, which is never good. Fortunately, this was better news than what I'm used to.

HF: What did he say?

CH: He said there was a phone call waiting for you from an air vice-marshal, which again is never good news. So then I had this air marshal on the phone saying the good news. I was standing at attention, thinking I was going to get a yelling at, but it turned out to be OK.

HF: It must mean a lot, not just to you but to the people you work with, that you're getting this award.

CH: It means a lot to me personally, but as you said, it means a lot to the squadron, because it wasn't just me on that aircraft. You have a crew of four, and they're doing equally important jobs, especially in that confined area I spoke about first. That wouldn't have happened without the crewmen, because it's such a big helicopter, you can't see anymore than what's straight in front of you, so you have the crew behind telling you what's going on, and manoeuvring the aircraft by voice marshalling. So for the squadron, who won two more DFCs in that summer-autumn period, which is unheard of in such a short period of time, it's pretty good for the squadron history and morale.

HF: What do you think this award says about the job you do?

CH: It goes to show how important the crew is and how well we've learned to work together, in that no one is flapped, everyone just buckled down, just really timely, precise voice marshalling from the guys in the back, who may not have necessarily known what was happening, but they kept their cool, which enabled me to do my job, which was only handling the sticks, and my co-pilot was giving me very good chat as well.

'I just had that dream'

HF: Why did you join the RAF rather than the Canadian Armed Forces?

CH: I always wanted to fly from a very young age. I joined the air cadets, 342 squadron, in Bedford [N.S.]. I just had that dream. I tried out for the Canadian air force coming out of high school. They didn't take me for whatever reason. I went to university at Mount Allison and then applied when I was there to the RAF. I knew that as a Commonwealth citizen you could join, and they had me along.

HF: They snapped you up.

CH: I wouldn't say it was that! [Laughs.] They got to the bottom of the list.

HF: Any regrets that the Canadian military didn't take you on?

CH: Absolutely not, I was coming out of high school and wasn't as mature as I was after a couple years of university, so no grudges at all.

HF: Do they tease you here for being Canadian?

CH: Absolutely. But then my boys back home tease me for picking up a little bit of a British accent.

HF: And you still get to work with Canadian troops?

CH: Absolutely. Especially in Afghanistan. Canadians are heavily involved in Kandahar province and Panjwaii. They don't have any of their own organic air assets, so they call on our squad quite a bit to patrol the bazaars. So lots of my friends are in the RCR Light Infantry, and you see them out there, and you have a coffee at the Tim Hortons that's set up, and you catch up on old times.

• RELATED STORY: Queen honours Canadian pilot who flies for British air force

Grandmother watched Spitfire dogfights

HF: You had a grandmother who was in the air force, didn't you?

CH: My grandmother was a WAF [Women in the Air Force, a British designation] and she was a London girl, and saw the Spitfire dogfights overhead and thought she wanted to be part of that, and joined up as a WAF and was a radar controller. For a London girl it was quite a brave move, too, it was an absolutely different war, different times back then, so I'm sure she was very, very brave.

HF: What do you think of all the attention you're getting for this award?

CH: It's terrible, I'm not really a fan of it, but if it shows the squadron in a good light, it's the thing to do, I guess, but personally it's quite difficult.

HF: Add what do your mom and dad back in Ottawa think?

CH: They're obviously proud, but I'm still the teenager that caused them trouble back then, so nothing changes there.

HF: What was your inspiration?

CH: I always wanted to fly, I was quite lucky. As soon as I joined the air force I knew I wanted to fly these helicopters, so I was very lucky to turn up where I wanted to go.

HF: You still get a kick out of this don't you?

CH: I do get excited when I'm doing low level; 50 feet, 140 knots, it is quite exciting, nothing compares, it's a sport of kings really, it's quite fun.

HF: What's it like fighting in Afghanistan with the British?

CH: It's a very unpredictable enemy. We're constantly revising our tactics to deal with it. However, as British forces we have very capable troops. When I was there last it was with the Royal Marines, and then before with 3 Para — amazing troops — everyone backs each other up. You can't ask for, as a hostile environment, a safer place to be than being with those boys, you feel very protected and hopefully we're giving them a good service as well taking them in there.

HF: Do you think being in Afghanistan is worth the effort?

CH: The more time we spend there the more we see dividends paid by our presence. The ultimate aim is provincial reconstruction, and unfortunately we've met quite stiff resistance whilst trying to do that, so now we're starting to see that paid.

CH: It's not a safe place. As you know, the Canadians have suffered quite a bit as well, but the troops are committed and the Canadians do the job. Hopefully we're there until the job is finished.

HF: Chris Hasler, thank you.