World War II
Upon the outbreak of World War II Hillary applied to join the air force, but withdrew the application before it was considered because he was "harassed by religious conscience". In 1943 Hillary joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator and served in 6 then 5 Squadron RNZAF on Catalina flying boats. In 1945 he was sent to Fiji and to the Solomon Islands where he was badly burnt in a boat accident, after which he was repatriated to New Zealand.
Read more about this topic: Edmund Hillary
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“After the planet becomes theirs, many millions of years will have to pass before a beetle particularly loved by God, at the end of its calculations will find written on a sheet of paper in letters of fire that energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.”
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