Retired veteran spent his career keeping planes on the radar

By Michelle Cochrane

TRENTON, Ont. (30/03/2011)- Second World War Veteran Lex Duncan, 86, proudly shows the medals he received while working in the Canadian Army. Duncan received two medals, the Volunteer and Victory Medal, which now has a place on his Canadian Legion jacket. Although he never saw the frontline during the war, Duncan was a part of the early development of radar within Canada. Photo by Michelle Cochrane

For personnel in the armed forces the goal is to stay off the radar.  For a local Second World War veteran, keeping others on the radar was a top priority.

Lex Duncan left a small logging town in British Columbia to join the Canadian Armed Forces at age 18 to take part in the development of radar in the Second World War.

When Duncan enlisted, he was asked to participate in the Radio Direction Finding Program.

Due to rising conflicts in Europe, Canada began developing, testing and manufacturing radar equipment in 1940.

“I thought it was interesting, so I decided to go,” Duncan said about being told the program was going to involve cutting-edge electronic equipment.

Army radar was designed for army aircraft and used to track planes and collect data to predict their position at a certain time based on their current path and speed. Using this information, anti-aircraft guns would then be positioned to point at the projected destination ready to fire.

He began his journey in Kingston, Ont. in February 1943 where he started specialized training with the Canadian Army Radio Direction Finding training program.  This phase consisted of six months of electronic teaching followed by three months of radar education.

“I’m a bit of an academic,” Duncan said about always enjoying math and science classes in school.

During this time, Duncan said he received education equivalent to a three-year college course.

After completing training, the graduating class consisted of 12 soldiers.  Six were sent to the Research Enterprise Limited where the radar sets were manufactured and the other half were sent to Ottawa.

In Ottawa, they were split into two more groups, with three at headquarters and the other three at the National Research Council.

“I was one of the ones that was fortunate enough to get to the National Research Council,” said Duncan.

Duncan’s job was to act as a technician to all the scientists who were developing the technology.

“That was a very good education… there wasn’t much to do with the fighting going on in the war, but it was good education for me,” he said.

Duncan finished his duration in the armed forces in a secret field station south of Ottawa where he worked on various configurations of antennas and exploring civilian uses for them.

Deciding to take an early discharge at the end of the way, Duncan went on to study electrical engineering at the University of British Columbia.

During his time in university, he joined his first branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and is now the chairman of the Trenton Legion seniors club.

Although he spent years helping soldiers and helping to protect fellow Canadians, the only tactile memorabilia Duncan has left is an a pair of army-assigned pliers and a screwdriver.