‘It was my duty to go’: Canada’s oldest living veteran on why he served his country
Global News
While Veterans Affairs Canada won't identify the country's oldest veterans for privacy reasons, Sinclair is believed to be the oldest living veteran in Canada.
Canada’s oldest veteran was honoured Wednesday, one day before Remembrance Day, during a ceremony at a Vancouver school.
Reuben Sinclair is just shy of turning 110 years old.
While Veterans Affairs Canada won’t identify the country’s oldest veterans for privacy reasons, Sinclair is believed to be the oldest living veteran in Canada.
He was 31 years old when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942, during the Second World War.
He served as a wireless mechanic operator deployed in Canada and trained pilots on how to take off and land on blacked-out runways using his technology.
“We had three transmitters,” he said. “One of the transmitters was on the plane and when they began their descent they starting beeping – beep, beep, beep. It meant they were 500 feet from the runway.
“That’s how they learned how to land in the dark. Because down there, Hitler would have bombed them out.”
Sinclair said he had two to three other people working with him during the war and although he can’t remember their names now, he called them “a good assortment” of people.