An imposing convoy of former military vehicles heading for Alaska was forced to take a detour through Jasper on July 18 after their original route was shut down due to wildfires burning in British Columbia.
Members of the Vancouver chapter of the international Military Vehicle Preservationist Association stopped at RCL Branch 31 Tuesday afternoon after having to detour around the wildfires threatening 150 Mile House and 100 Mile House in the British Columbia interior.
“We had four Legions before Dawson Creek we were going to visit and we couldn’t get to them so we came up the Coquihalla and Highway 16,” Capt. (ret’d) John Hawthorne said, “So we’re visiting two others in Alberta.”
Veterans Affairs is supporting the convoy, which is smaller than originally planned but still included a 1940 Chevy staff car and several heavy trucks, all painted in army green, and a half-dozen members of the club.
The trip will be Hawthorne’s third up the highway, which is marking its 75th anniversary.
“It’s mostly positive,” Hawthorne said of the reaction they get when a dozen or so trucks are rolling down the road or pulling into a parking lot. “It’s about supporting the veterans, too, so we like to pull into the Legions, and some of the vets like to come up to the vehicles, the vehicles they drove.”
This trip is longer than most so a lot of the vehicles they brought were newer editions that would have been used in more recent conflicts such as Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Hawthorne has been restoring and driving classic military vehicles for about 20 years.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s the 75th anniversary of the Alaska Highway and for most of us it’s the last kick at the can, because we won’t be around for the 100th.”
Craig Gilbert
[email protected]
