Following the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in Trenton, Ontario in July 1939. He earned his wings as a pilot in Trenton in 1939. He completed the flying instructor course at Camp Borden in 1939. He spent over four years on instructional duties in Alberta, before being posted overseas as C.O. of No. 408 Bomber Squadron, 6 Bomber Group 26 November 1944. He won a Distinguished Flying Cross on 4 May 1945 with No. 408 Goose Squadron. He served as a flying instructor for the BCATP during World War II. He was a squadron commander at the close of the war. In 1946, he was a member of the Chelsey committee which was instructed to make recommendations about the provision of officers for the active force, about the educational requirements of candidates, and about the way they should be trained. The committee, headed by Brigadier Leonard McEwan Chelsey favored three plans. Plan A proposed to eliminate Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario as a source of officers and to use the site as a two-year course for military training of university graduates. Plan B proposed to enlarge RMC so it could provide the total annual requirements of the active force, to make it free and to impose an obligation on graduates to serve in the active force. Plan C proposed to enlarge RMC to produce 50–70% of the officers needed and to have a parallel officer training system in universities to prepare the balance. After the war, Sharp served with the Air Force HQ and Central Flying School in Trenton. He served as an exchange officer posted as Directing Staff at the RAF Staff College in Britain. In 1959, he became the commander of the RCAF Training Command and various posting with NORAD. Sharp was promoted to Air Marshal in the RCAF. He served as Vice Chief of Defence Staff from 1966. The following year, in 1968, he was regraded from Air Marshal to Lieutenant General and in January 1969 he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of NORAD. In 1969, Sharp was elevated to the rank of General and served as Chief of Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces from 1969 to 1972. He retired in 1972 and became a partner in a consulting firm until 1979. In 1983 he joined retired Canadian Ambassador Ross Campbell, as a founding partner in the consulting company InterCon Consultants. He wrote a paper for the July–August 1967 Air University Review on the Reorganization of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Family
He was married to Betty Sharp and had two sons, John and Richard, and three daughters, Brenda, Barbara and Elizabeth. Brenda Sharp married Charles Walton Cole and had three sons, Adam, Alex and Michael.
