The Wegner Point Fallen Paratroopers Memorial commemorates seven soldiers (4 Signal Corps and 3 Royal Canadian Regiment) who drowned in the Ottawa River on 8 May 1968. Every year on 8 May a memorial service is held at Wegner Point by the members of 2 CMBG Headquarters and Signal Squadron, the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Airborne Regiment Association of Canada.
On 8 May 1968 at around 8:30 pm, the worst peacetime Canadian military training accident occurred at Camp Petawawa, 100 miles north-west of Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. It was a cold and windy day that 26 paratroopers from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment from Wollseley Barracks in London, Ontario, and 2 Signals Squadron, were participating in a training jump over Camp Petawawa.
Taking off in three Buffalo transport aircraft from the Bonnechere Airfield, an Air Defence Command auxiliary field, the paratroopers were expected to land in the designated landing zone on the Mattawa Plains within Camp Petawawa. The weather was good and a test dummy dropped earlier indicated no issues for the jumpers. In a tragic fluke, an unexpected wind shear at around 600 feet carried 22 of the paratroopers into the nearby Ottawa River, 1000 feet off shore near Wegner Point.
Weighted down by their heavy equipment and tangled in their parachutes, the soldiers struggled to make it out of the water. Rescue efforts saved all but seven of the soldiers. Some of the bodies weren’t recovered until days later, still entangled in their parachute harnesses.
A memorial cairn was erected at Wegner Point the following July, with the name of paratroopers lost etched on the monument. A wreath-laying ceremony is held each May at the memorial cairn, led by the Canadian Airborne Regiment Association. Serving members of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, Royal Canadian Regiment, and 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (2CMBG) Headquarters and Signals Squadron, gather alongside retired members and survivors of that horrible day to remember their comrades who never came home.
The seven paratroopers who died on 8 May 1968:
- Master Warrant Officer Reginald Riddell (1RCR London)
- Warrant Officer Michael McDonnell (1RCR London)
- Cpl. Bruce Chiswell (1RCR London)
- Cpl. Hugh Fields (2 Sigs Sqn)
- Cpl. Bob Knight (2 Sigs Sqn)
- Cpl. Dennis Clements (2 Sigs Sqn)
- Cpl. Jim Misener (2 Sigs Sqn)
During the 50th Fallen Paratrooper Memorial Service on May 13, 2018 a large boulder inscribed with the names of the fallen, installed next to the cairn, was unveiled. It features the crests of the Royal Canadian Regiment, Signals Squadron and Paratroopers.
