John Hasek

Who was John Hasek?

John Henry George Hasek, CD was a Czechoslovakian-born Canadian soldier, journalist and author. After fleeing post-war communist Czechoslovakia, he and his family emigrated to the United Kingdom, South America and eventually Canada where Hasek joined the Canadian armed forces in 1957.

Major Hasek graduated from the University of Ottawa and later the University of New Brunswick with a Master of Arts in Psychology. As a member of the Canadian Forces he studied and worked as an instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.

Hasek served in The Black Watch of Canada, The Royal Canadian Regiment and later The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.

While with the Canadian Forces, Hasek served in Ghana, Vietnam and Cyprus and as the first commander of the SkyHawks Parachute Team, which is the Demonstration Parachute Team of the Canadian Forces. An accomplished skydiver, Hasek had several thousand descents to his credit, and served as a member of the Parachute Testing Wing/Trials and Evaluations centre of the Airborne Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.

After retiring in 1981, he worked as a freelance journalist and published The Disarming of Canada ISBN 1-55013-045-5.