FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11 2016
$1.25
NEWSSTAND PRICE
PULSE 13
Rent is due
URP Events presents rock musical on 20th anniversary
LOOK 31
K-O.ME
One size fits all fashion inspires dancing
TODAY’S DRIVE 45
Nissan Altima
Automaker’s top seller adopts fresh new look NORTHSHORENEWS
LOCAL NEWS . LOCAL MATTERS . SINCE 1969
INTERACT WITH THE NEWS AT
nsnews.com
WWII bomber relives wartime memories
No time for anxiety before a mission, says NV veteran MARIA SPITALE-LEISK mspitale-leisk@nsnews.com
Second World War veteran Gord Larsen signed up for the Air Force on a whim and it may have saved his life.
“A friend and I, we just thought – we were 19 so we went and joined the Air Force. His name was Sid. He lived just over the way here,” says Larsen from the living room of his home he built near Grand Boulevard in 1949 after returning from the war. “Strangely enough, about a month and half after we joined, I got a letter from the government conscripting me into the army. So, I was able to write my Air Force number down and say, ‘You’re too late.’ ” Larsen, who lost friends in the war, knows it may have been a different story for him had he not given in to youthful spontaneity. “Thank goodness,” he says. Standing in a special nook in his split-level home, Larsen looks up at the model airplanes on the wall, replicas of the ones he flew while serving as a Bomber Command pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England. “That’s the Halifax. That’s the Lancaster. That’s the Wellington, the first line bomber at the beginning of the war, then it went into training,” says Larsen. He proudly explains the significance of the badges of honour on his jacket.
North Vancouver war veteran Gord Larsen looks over a model of a Halifax bomber he flew during the Second World War. There’s a defence medal and a victory medal hanging below his lapel. “The bottom bar meant you went overseas,” he says. The memories come flooding back for Larsen and the unimaginable stories start spilling out, as he transports the listener to England in 1942.
See Only page 4
PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
Pedestrian injured in Lynn Valley collision BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
A North Vancouver woman is in hospital with head injuries after colliding with a vehicle midway through a Lynn Valley intersection Tuesday night. Witnesses told police
that around 7:30 p.m., the 21-year-old entered a marked crosswalk on Lynn Valley Road at 29th Street while the Don’t Walk sign was flashing, attempting to quickly cross through the intersection before the light changed. She safely made it past one driver in a black SUV but then collided with a second
slow-moving vehicle turning right onto 29th, according to Cpl. Geoff Harder, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman. “She actually ran into the vehicle,” Harder said. “She hit the side of it. It knocked her back. It was her head hitting the ground when she fell that caused the injuries.” An off-duty paramedic and
1050 Belvedere Drive OPEN HOUSE NOVEMBER 12TH SAT 2-4
his girlfriend were the first ones to offer help at the scene. B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics rushed the woman to Lions Gate Hospital, where she was still in treatment as of Thursday afternoon, Harder said. The driver stayed at the
See Police page 10
$1,880,000