WW2 veteran Zack Bourque (left)stand beside his friend Vicki Evans at the Moose Lodge 1552 in Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Zack Bourque is an incredible 100 years old, and a veteran of the second world war where he served in the army and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

iNFOnews.ca sat down for coffee with the centenarian at his favourite place to spend time with his friends at the Moose Lodge 1552 in Kamloops.

Surrounded by warm chatter, shuffling playing cards and clinking beer glasses, the veteran tried to recall times from so many decades ago.

“Too me it was so long ago, there were so many different things,” he said. “I started off in the air force, then was in the army and then was in the air force again.”

Born in 1923 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Bourque dropped out of high school to take advantage of a booming labour industry in the wake of the depression. He started out as a carpenter’s apprentice at age 15 “because they were building an air base in Moncton” and later went on to work at the shipyards.

The start of his long career serving for the Royal Canadian Air Force began when he was age 20.

“A friend of mine, well I hate to say this, but all the girls were going for guys in uniform, so we decided to get a uniform,” he said. “I only had a grade 8 education so I didn’t think they’d take me in the air force, but I got in because I was small and at that time air crew liked small people. I got stationed in Montreal and that’s when I learned to drink a little bit, and I failed, I didn’t make it. I was discharged and automatically went into the army.”

Bourque didn’t provide many details of his life as a soldier. He described that time of his young life as “confusing.” He remembered when D Day started in 1944 and allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in Northern France.

“You didn’t have T.V. or anything like that, you believed what they told you, you couldn’t think for yourself, really,” he said. “We had bugles and all that. We got into trucks and headed west and we thought the Japanese had invaded because they wouldn’t tell you nothing at that time so we were being transferred to the infantry in Calgary. I got my training there and went overseas from there.”

While it isn’t clear what Bourque’s experience as a soldier overseas was like, he had more to say about 1949, when he joined the air force again working mostly as a supply technician because he “had a little bit of machinist skills” from his time working in the shipyards.

He was later stationed as a sergeant at the Mount Lolo Canadian Forces Station in Kamloops - a radar station that closed in 1988 – where he served for four years until 1973.

“In Mount Lolo, it was an American base and then we took over,” he said. “It was a radar base and the Russians were the enemy. The Americans had three branches of radar against the Russians because they thought the Russians would bomb Americans, I guess. It was a waste of time, really.”

Zack Bourque (left) is a WW2 veteran in Kamloops, pictured with his friend Vicki Evans at the Moose Lodge.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Bourque decided to stay and make Kamloops his home instead of returning to the Maritimes. He said he got some small jobs and then went back to work at Mount Lolo as a civilian until it closed.

Today Bourque is a member of the Anavets 290 club on Kamloops’s North Shore, a service club dedicated to serving veterans and the community. At the age of 100, he doesn’t know any other remaining war veterans he once worked alongside.

“There were a few kids I worked with at Mount Lolo but they kept passing away.”

READ MORE: Kamloops war veteran turns 100: His secrets to longevity 

When asked what the significance of Remembrance Day is for him, Bourque said “wars are useless.”

“It’s hard, I got to the point where I think wars are useless, all they do is kill people really, they make the rich richer. I’m anti-war and I wouldn’t advise anybody to join up. Way back, wars were civil soldiers fighting soldiers and now all they’re doing is killing civilians on both sides. And you can’t really believe what's going on because there is so much false information.”

READ MORE: Where to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in Kamloops, Okanagan

His favourite place to be is with his friends at the Moose Lodge, where he also attends Remembrance Day services. 

Vicki Evans is a bar server at Moose Lodge, and friend of Bourque's. 

“His (Bourque’s) value to the Moose family as a veteran is remembered and honoured daily by his presence, we all just love him,” she said. "It’s because of him and so many more veterans that we are here today.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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