We are always on the lookout for ex-Cadets to add to our Class Notes section. If you are or if you know of an Ex Cadet with something interesting going on, we want to hear about it! Whether it’s career related or more on the personal/family life, we would like to know what’s going on with you and / or them.
Just send a short write up, and, if you want, a recent JPEG appropriate photo, to: everitas.classnotes@gmail.com.
4606 Warner Sharkey, Class of ’59, took the above photo of Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge from his 4th story apartment in the East Village, New York City, on 29 Oct 2012, at 8:01 p.m. just before power failed. The water eventually rose to some 3 meters above Ave C in places. (parawarn@gmail.com)
14390 Kate Armstrong, Class of ’84, was the first woman ever assigned a Royal Military College of Canada college number, and graduated in 1984 with a Commerce Degree amongst the class of Cadets containing the first women graduates.
After serving several years as a Logistics Supply Officer, Kate took her release in 1993 and moved home to Vancouver into the role of Labour Relations Officer For BC Hydro. When the electricity market deregulated in 1996, Kate moved onto the Trade Floor at Powerex, the trading subsidiary of BCH, and worked in electricity trading and origination roles mainly focused on the US Southwest until her recent retirement in January of this year.
Kate is currently writing her first novel in pursuit of her dream of becoming a published novelist and is completing her formal counselling education to work in the field of childhood abuse and addiction recovery counselling.
On a social note, since graduation from RMC, Kate has enjoyed many personal adventures including African safari, world travel, extreme skiing, whitewater river kayaking but the highlight so far was sailing her C &C Northeast 39 sailboat from Vancouver to the South Pacific and back during a sabbatical in 2004/2005.
Today, you can find Kate gratefully living her life in Vancouver – writing, studying, saiilng, skiing and golfing. And generally aspiring to laugh as often as possible each day. (katearmstrong13@me.com)
14967 Isabel Sheets (nee Gross), Class of ’86 – After Isabel’s final military posting to Tyndall AFB as a communications Capt. programming for the RSSF(Regional Software and Support Facility for NORAD), she joined Hermann’s Royal Lipizzaner’s as one of the show riders before she returned to Ottawa to work as a software application developer, working in Ottawa and Toronto. While working as an independent contractor she was offered a contract in Vienna, Austria (home of the Spanish Riding School [where they train their beautiful Lipizzaner horses in high school dressage]). Isabel spent a year in Vienna on contract to an American Software Consulting firm. Isabel’s hi-light in Vienna was to successfully run her first marathon in under 3:45 hours, and go on some amazing travel trips. She then moved to CO, then Pennsylvania, and is currently back in northern CO where she works for Northrup Grumman on a CDC contract.
She stays very busy working a full time job, running her hobby farm with 13 animals (4 show horses, 4 alpacas, 3 cats, and 2 dogs – and the odd fox or two!), continuing her development as a fiber artist (thus the 4 alpacas!) and consummate beader (one can never have enough pretty bling!) Three of the four horses she takes care of are hers and she successfully trains and shows them at Dressage. This past year she placed 5th overall with her mare Destiny at the Regional Championships in the 2nd level Adult Amateur division, and she’s currently training 2 of her horses for 3rd level next year. Isabel is very thankful to have the opportunity to train with two amazing trainers – one of whom is an ex-Olympian who flies in from CA regularly for clinics.
Should any ex-cadets be in the area please don’t hesitate to drop in and say hi – especially if you have any handyman/woman skills :-)! (as long as I’m not at a show or clinic, I’m happy to play local tour guide or rest stop). (isbeaddazzledjewels@yahoo.com)
16009 Steve Molaski, Class of ’88 – Immediately following the Class of ’88 graduation, 2Lt Molaski headed off to 1 RCHA in Lahr, Germany. Now considered as a “Cold War” veteran, he recalls the demise of the Warsaw Pack and Berlin Wall (unifying East and West Germany) as pivotal events of this tour. Capt Molaski returned to RMC to serve as both Sqn Comd and Adjt from 92-95 followed by various sub-unit command and staff appointments. Major Molaski and his family attended the Baltic Defence College in Tartu Estonia 02-03 followed by Battery Command at 1 RCHA in Shilo Manitoba 03-05. LCol Molaski has served abroad in Kosovo, Afghanistan, New Zealand, and most recently Italy (Joint Force Command Naples). LCol Molaski, his wife Cindy, and two children Holly and Camron have enjoyed the numerous postings and anticipate settling down in Ottawa once his military career ceases. LCol Molaski hung up his hockey skates some time ago and preferred coaching both his children’s hockey teams in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. His hobbies are sports related, running ½ marathons with Cindy (who readily beats him) as well as cross country and downhill skiing. He aspires to reside on a golf course and lower his handicap upon retirement. (WILLIAM.MOLASKI@forces.gc.ca)
16073 Stephen Brown, Class of ’87, is a Consulting Partner at Deloitte working in Toronto and living in Brampton with his wife and three daughters. He married an RMC graduate, 16880 Jackie Lines, in 1991 and has lived in Germany, Calgary and Brampton over the past 21 years. He retired from the Army in 1994 after a tour with UNPROFOR in the former Yugoslavia and went into a full time MBA program at the University of Calgary. Upon graduation in 1996 he joined the Deloitte practice in Calgary and began his career as a management consultant. He planned on doing consulting for a couple of years to continue to learn about business and to gain a breadth of experience. He figured he would get a real job after a short time but over the past 17 years has not found anything more enjoyable.
In addition to working and doing regular family things he and his family like to travel to warm destinations in Florida and Barbados or to the mountains in Canmore, Alberta. In the last four years he has taken an interest in triathlons (after snapping his Achilles tendon playing squash) and this past summer completed an Ironman at the European Triathlon Championships in Roth, Germany. He recently attended the 25 year reunion of his RMC graduating class and was again impressed by the camaraderie of his graduating class. (stephenbrown@deloitte.ca)
16142 Jeffrey J. Smith, Class of ’88, is a Doctor of Common Law student at McGill University, where he holds a CIBC Fellowship 2012-2013. He is considering the case for multilateral treaty regulation in the protection of the Arctic marine environment and the adequacies of conventional means for state actors to arrive at environmental protection in discrete regional geographic constructs. An important further area of inquiry is the comparative success of the Antarctic Treaty System. He holds a B.Sc. (Oceanography) (Royal Roads Military College); J.D. (University of Victoria); and LL.M. (Fletcher). He is presently Principal legal advisor (jurisconsult) to the government of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.
16422 Patrick Joseph Del Guidice, Class of ’89, graduated from RMC in 1989 with a BEng in Engineering and Management. After spending the majority of his Air Force career posted to the Ottawa area, he retired in August 1996 at the rank of Captain. Through an Australian initiative, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a Flight Lieutenant and moved to Canberra in October 1996. He has had a rewarding career thus far working as an Engineer in areas such as Air Defence Command and Control, Satellite Communications, Radar, Radio communications and Counter IED. As a Squadron Leader, he also deployed to the Middle East where he worked as an embed in the Combined Air Operations Center’s A6 organisation. At the rank of Wing Commander, he currently represents Australia in Colorado Springs, working as an embed in the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command. Patrick has been happily married to Helene for 17 years. In his spare time he enjoys road cycling and fly fishing. (patandhelene@hotmail.com)
17326 John Dullaert, Class of ’90, will retire from the Canadian Forces (CF) on 24 January 2013 after 26+ years of loyal and dedicated service to the CF, the Communications and Electronics Branch and the Royal Canadian Air Force.
LCol Dullaert is married to Bing Xie Dullaert and has 2 children, Ryan 12, and Meech 6. His mandarin continues to improve, his collection of travel photos and videos is approaching a terebyte, and he is looking forward to finishing at least the current round of renovations on the house. John is planning to remain in Ottawa with Shared Services Canada as a Director in the Telecom Transformation Program.
A retirement function will be held during the week of 14-18 Jan, timing and location within Ottawa to be determined. To receive further details on the function, or to provide congratulatory messages, best wishes or career anecdotes, please contact Chief Warrant Officer Wayne Babcock, at 613-993-7074, or wayne.babcock@forces.gc.ca.
18363 Edward (Ted) Laing, Class of ’92, relocated to Calgary early this year to assume the position of VP Operations, for Global Thermoelectric (Specializing in remote power generation systems). He loves his work and he credits the leadership training and skills developed from Military College for helping land this great opportunity.
In 2008, Ted joined Alcoa Power and Propulsion in Georgetown, ON as General/Plant Manager. Prior to Alcoa he worked for Toyota (TMHG) in Brampton, ON for 7 years as Operations Manager. In addition to his engineering degree from RMC he holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Queens ’99) and is Six Sigma Black Belt certified.
Ted’s first love is his family. He is married to Claudine (20+ years), a Placement Director, Group Home Manager and Homemaker. They are together raising 4 children: Keeley 15, Kennedy 13, Madison 11 and Cooper 8. His second love is hockey which he still enjoys playing and coaching to this day… “Go Paladins”! (Ted.Laing@hotmail.com)
First Years Face Final Hurdle Before Break
Article by 26659 OCdt (I) Danielle Andela – Class of ’16
After much toil the first semester is finally coming to an end. Through FYOP, midterms and now coming up to final exams, the pressure has been on for first year Officer Cadets and myself as one of them. University has been a huge leap from the many different lives the First Years at RMC have lived before now. Personally, things like the format of University lectures and papers are completely new and alien. Simply adjusting to working within these structures has been a challenge, but one that has been met by all the Officer Cadets with hard work and sweat.
Along with academic studies there is of course also the military side of the equation. From duty weekends with rifle drill to mess dinners to daily duties and schedules, this semester has been packed with many new experiences and situations to handle. Finally having reached the end of it, with the exam period beginning, I personally can look back and marvel at the amount of work that has been done throughout the last four months. The big sigh of relief is almost here, as is a long break that everyone gets to spend with family and loved ones. It’s been an incredibly busy few months but ones that have been well spent (especially with the First Year cadets) with massive amounts of learning and maturing. I am definitely looking forward to the beginning of the next semester and coming back after the break to be with all the wonderful people here. I know for my peers as well, the looming exam week is the final hurdle in the way of a relaxing break.