Five anciens recently (18-22 Oct) completed an outstanding visit to Kabul and Kandahar. The picture was taken in front of the Governor’s palace in Kandahar.
Present are Colonel Richard Giguère, LtCol (Ret’d) Rémi Landry, RAdm(Ret’d) KenSummers, Gen (Ret’d) Paul Manson and Col(Ret’d)Alain Pellerin.
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We have contacted numerous ex-cadets from the fifties through to the new millennium and plan to feature them in the coming months to give readers a chance to catch up with names and faces from each of the respective CMCs. If you would like to contribute to this column, please feel free to email me (Ken Eady) at s25247@rmc.ca
– 8198 Rick Wright (RRMC RMC 1969)
Rick graduated from the College with a BSc and retired from the military as a LCol in 2001 when, at the age of 55, his brain “turned to mush”. His career milestones included completing an MBA from Queen’s University in 1979, two UN tours (Egypt 74 and Cyprus 79), a two-year exchange with the British Army on the Rhine, Commanding Officer 731 Communications Squadron, Shilo, Commanding Officer 1 CBG HQ and Sig Sqn, Calgary, and Project Director, then Deputy Project Manager PMO TCCCS, the project to replace the Army’s tactical communications equipment. He joined the Corps of Commissionaires, Southern Alberta Division in September 2002 to finance his passions for golfing and reading; all are proceeding very well, although too much early snow hides his errant golf balls and all the reading hasn’t improved his game! Rick has been very active in the volunteer community, being both the Calgary RMC Club Branch and the Calgary Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Branch Vice-President and President, a member of the Board of Directors of both the Royal Alberta United Services Institute and the C&E Branch Museum Foundation. He was recently awarded the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation for his support of Veterans’ causes, notably while serving as National Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping, and as the Master of Ceremonies for the Calgary Chapter’s Annual August 9th Peacekeepers Day celebrations. Rick, Linda and Michael still live in Calgary and welcome any and all who call. They will probably leave their house in Calgary feet first in a pine box in another 30 years or so.
Rick can be contacted at: rickwright@telusplanet.net
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– 9398 Dr. Gary C. Moore (RRMC RMC 1972)
Having been a Roadent and then a Frigateer, when I graduated in ’72 it was almost as if I had never really attended RMC. It just seemed that the SFMA was just a little bit different, with our clandestine “Frigate Sports Car Club” (composed of several third year cadets who weren’t supposed to be driving around K’ton) among other things helping to differentiate us from the masses across the Square. That helped the four years pass, and after grad my first posting was to the RCD in Germany, back to my old high school stomping grounds (having spent four years as an air force brat at 4 Wing). The posting was “interesting” as I was the first subaltern to join the Regiment straight out of College in years (and perhaps the only one in my class to go immediately overseas). At the time, most units in 4CMBG typically expected their members (including other ranks) to have spent at least one tour in Canada before going overseas; thus Lieutenants were a rare sighting in the Brigade. I joined the Regiment as a tank troop leader, never having been on a tank in any phase of my “light armour” training. My new CO told me that I was an “experiment” designed to show the “inadequacies of the training system”. I was expected to fail. That certainly increased the pucker factor of being a newly minted subbie, but somehow I managed to survive and eventually enjoy the tour. (My tank, RCD “call sign 14”, is now on display in the War Museum in Ottawa!). From Germany it was off to recruiting in Manitoba, and then on to the Strathcona’s in Calgary. After joining the Straths, I was immediately sent off to be Adjutant of the UNEF HQ in Egypt, a fantastic experience. Following that, I had a short exchange with my Squadron in Sydney, Australia, and then served as Ops O and squadron leader with the Regiment in Cyprus.
I eventually left the Straths and the Army eight years after grad. Although I had thoroughly enjoyed almost all aspects of my Army time, the CF in 1980 appeared to me to be in a death spiral; so when my career manager told me that for the next 6-8 years I should not expect to go overseas and have mainly desk jobs, I decided to leave. At the time Calgary was in a boom cycle, and I figured that if I were to drive a desk, I might as well be properly compensated!
Since leaving the Army, my career path has been rather eclectic. My first civvy job was in Human Resources with a tar sands firm, and two years later I went on to do executive search with a national headhunting company. About this time I was going through one of a series of mid-life crises, and decided to go back to school at UBC. Being somewhat older (like a decade) than my classmates, I managed to shock them by having a heart attack in my second year (which earned me some subsequent light handed treatment by my profs, many of whom were younger than I). Turning 40 was celebrated by graduating with a commerce PhD in the “management of information systems”. This was followed by a few years of being a professor in the business school at the U of Calgary, and then back into industry as Chief Information Officer with an upstream oil and gas company. Headhunters then helped me move around with CIO appointments at an electric utility, and later with one of Canada’s biggest telecommunications firms. I wrapped up my full time employment in a yet a different professional area, leading a marketing team with a leading global software company.
The successes I enjoyed in being able to move about in so many different industries and in different roles I attribute to the training and experiences gained in the Army. It was not just the leadership training that helped, but some of the more esoteric education, such as using the “Principles of War” to help drive company strategy while on the job and also while teaching strategy in the business school and at industry seminars.
For the past few years I have enjoyed being semi-retired with short bouts of consulting and teaching at the business school (and thirteen trips to the angioplasty clinic, but that’s another story). I have also been heavily involved coaching the hockey and lacrosse teams of my five children, with three of them still at home in high school. Summers I spend on the road, enjoying cross-continental trips in my Z4 with the top down and the wind in my hair (which I still have). Like many ex-cadets, my RMC experience was positive to the point that seeing what it meant to me has inspired one of my kids to apply. He is now in that process, which about says it all…..
Gary can be contacted at: gary_c_moore@yahoo.ca
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– 15186 – John Weaver (RMC 1985)
After graduation, John began his career as an EME officer. After a posting to Ottawa, John was rewarded for his penance with a 5 year tour in Lahr Germany, where he served with Base Maintenance, 4 Service Battalion, and capped off his tour as the Maintenance Officer for the 8th Canadian Hussars. After such a wonderful tour, John delayed his return to Canada by 14 months in order to complete a MSc in Gun Systems Design at RMCS Shrivenham, UK. Then it was back to Ottawa for a number of Project Management and Support to Operations related tours including Field Artillery Systems Manager and DGLEPM Operations Officer. During this time, John was promoted Major and also had the opportunity to spend 4 months in 1998 with the UN Special Commission based in Baghdad, Iraq, as part of the Missile Inspection Team. After 20 years in uniform, he elected to settle in Ottawa with his wife Rebecca and three daughters, and to resume his academic pursuits. In 2004, John graduated with a MASc in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University and shortly thereafter commenced work as a Defence Scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada. He is now working as a Team Lead in the Space Systems/C4ISR field, and continues on a part time basis working towards his PhD. That leaves a little spare time, where you will probably find John either at the hockey rink playing recreational league hockey, or volunteering in support of girls hockey or autism related charities.
John can be contacted at jrweaver@storm.ca