A Real Life High Flying Top Gun.

While a student at KCSS Oliver not only maintained excellent grades (he was an Ontario Scholar in Grade 13), but was also active outside the classroom, participating in Junior Basketball, Junior Football and playing 2 years on the school soccer team. Upon graduation in 1983 he flew home to follow his life long dream of becoming a professional pilot. After two years at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, Oliver became bored with the limited thrust of single engine propeller aircraft. In his search for “more power” he applied to become a military pilot with the Canadian Forces.

In 1988, after a lengthy process of selection and training, he graduated as a CF-18 pilot and was posted to 416 Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) in Cold Lake, Alberta. With 416 TFS he travelled the world to participate in many military exercises. In December of 1990, he deployed to Doha, Qatar to participate in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During his time in the Middle East he flew 23 combat missions over the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait and Iraq. In 1991 Major Baus graduated from the Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (Canada’s version of the United States Navy’s Top Gun School).

From 1993 to 1996 he flew as an exchange pilot with the German Luftwaffe. During his time in Germany he flew the ECR Tornado with the 321st Electronic Combat and Recce Squadron in Lagerlechfeld — about 70 Kms West of Munich.

Upon completing his tour in Germany, Oliver proceeded to “3 Wing” in Bagotville, Quebec. After serving a year as the Tactical Evaluation Officer he was promoted to the rank of Major and took over as the Wing Exercise Evaluation and Plans Officer. In 1998, he served as the Canadian Liaison Officer to the Combined Air Operations Centre in Vicenza, Italy during operation Deliberate Force in support of the allied ground forces in Bosnia.

In 2000 he was appointed Commander of the CF-18 Weapon System Manager Detachment in Mirabel, Quebec and there he led a team that oversaw the development and integration of the CF-18 software. Finally, in 2003, Major Baus was sent to the “Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr”  (State College of the German Armed Forces) in Hamburg.

He is scheduled to remain there until 2005 in preparation for service as a general station officer in Canadian or NATO.

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