JCRs test survival skills at site of Second World War plane crash on Vancouver Island

During Exercise HARDY SURVIVOR, 21 JCRs, four Canadian Rangers, one Adult Committee member and Master Warrant Officer Dan Hryhoryshen, Company Sergeant‑Major for 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group JCR Company, flew by helicopter to Lawn Point Provincial Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The exercise, which took place Sept. 24 and 25, focused on survival and leadership training.

“Lawn Point is a bit special because it is the site of a World War II aircraft that went down,” explained Canadian Ranger (CR) Kevin McGhee, Patrol Leader of the Port Hardy JCR Patrol. “I think we were lucky. We told the kids it would be difficult to find some of the wreckage because it was blown up – it was an American plane, and they came and viewed it and blew it up – but we did find the wing with the star still on it, so that was pretty cool. That one was pretty popular for the kids to see.”

On Dec. 26, 1943, U.S. Navy Ventura PV‑1 28736, with a crew of six, was scheduled to fly a navigation exercise from Ault Field on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington, along with two other aircraft. Two of the aircraft returned safely, but the Ventura PV‑1 did not and radio contact was lost. According to 101 Squadron (North Island) of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association, it was very rainy, and the cloud cover was thick and dark that afternoon when the plane could be heard circling overhead in the area of Winter Harbour on northern Vancouver Island.

It wasn’t until June 1944 that pieces of the puzzle of what happened to the Ventura PV‑1 were put together. A Canadian military aircraft spotted trees with their tops clipped off at Lawn Point, crew members saw the wreckage of an American military plane, and the plane was identified.

On June 16, 1944, an investigation team arrived at the site to remove the bodies and blow up the aircraft and its bombs. The bodies of five of the six crew members were found at the wreckage site. However, the body of one, Joseph Anderson, was never found. At the scene, investigators learned that not all the crew members were killed on impact; the bones of one or two bodies were starting to heal and knit together before they died, according to 101 Squadron (North Island). Investigators also found a well‑worn path to the beach, bones from cooked fish meals, evidence of a bonfire, and the five bodies laid side by side and covered in planks.

Leading up to Ex HARDY SURVIVOR, the Port Hardy JCR Patrol did survival training related to what the JCRs would do if they were ever in a situation like the one faced by the crew of U.S. Navy Ventura PV‑1 28736.

“We picked Lawn Point because once we were done looking at the remains of the aircraft, we could talk about the situation the two or three guys who survived the crash were in, which was on Boxing Day so it was pretty nasty, and get them thinking about what a survival situation would really be like,” said CR McGhee. “We chose to do it that way because we could say, ‘This actually happened; we’re standing on the ground where three guys had to survive.’ It was a bit more powerful to say, ‘These guys lived this; what would you do?’ For years, we’ve been wanting to go somewhere by helicopter, and it all came together that way.”

After arriving at Lawn Point, the JCRs set up bivouac sites, and they went off with the CRs to look for food and a water source, and they worked on survival skills such as building a fire and building a shelter.

“They absolutely loved it, partially because the weather was not rain coming up sideways like our last exercise – the weather just turned out to be beautiful,” said CR McGhee. “They really enjoyed the helicopter ride. They seemed to enjoy every aspect of it.”

CR McGhee says another main focus of the exercise was building leadership.

“On our last exercise, it was our first one since COVID, and we realized that we were just way too big to operate as a patrol. So this time we broke up into sections and they operated independently of each other,” he said. “They were practising leadership skills for the new leaders because we lost quite a few kids during COVID who aged out and graduated. There was a big focus on leadership training, and it went really well, and everything was quite successful.”