28/04/2025
Former Royal New Zealand Airforce (RNZAF) aircraft technician and artist, Bruce Denton, who served in the RNZAF for 20 years from sixteen years old, is on Voices Unhindered this week.
Bruce struggled with dyscalculia, which meant he couldn't add or subtract properly and was labelled "dumb" and bullied yet this didn't faze him much.. Bruce was a dreamer and had a tendency to "look beyond" the here and now along with during his time serving in the RNZAF, where he spent most of his downtime sketching.
Looking back at his childhood Bruce says he believes he was forced to grow up too fast, causing him to miss years of his childhood and witnessing things he'd rather not see.
One of Bruce's earliest memories is his father taking him on som**hing loud and bumpy which he later found out was an aircraft.
Bruce's father also served in the RNZAF during WWII, yet his father never talked about his time during WWII, which Bruce believes was due to a likely post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and remembers seeing a bullet hole in his fathers leg.
One of Bruce's many pieces of amazing artworks are collected in his book, but I felt this one represented him best.
Listen Wednesday at 9am NZST on Plains Media or hear it here:
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