Obituaries

Lieutenant-Colonel James Bower

20 February 1966 – 11 June 2020

Corporal Aaron Michael St James

Corporal Aaron St James was born 20 April 1995 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He began his 7 year service to Canada on 26 March 2014. Following Basic training, he was posted first to the RCEME School at Canadian Forces Base Borden, and then to 1 Service Battalion at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, to complete his Vehicle Technician training. Upon achieving his trade qualifications, Corporal St James was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in Shilo, Manitoba in 2018. In June of 2019 he deployed to Latvia with the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Group as part of Operation REASSURANCE, Rotation 19-02.

Throughout his career, Corporal St James proudly served the Army of the  West. His pride in the RCEME Corps and his personal pride of serving the  nation was evident to all who served with and knew him. The military and  especially the RCEME Corps were more than a career to Corporal St James;  his fellow soldiers were truly an extended family to him.

Corporal St James passed away on 27 April 2020 and is survived  by his wife Joanna St James, his mother Heather MacDonald, his  brother Special Constable Matthew St James, and his sisters  Samantha St James, Kierra Cardinal and Neo Cardinal.

 

Sgt Kathryn Elisabeth Howard

After 29 years of loyal service in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME), Sgt Kathryn Elisabeth Howard passed away suddenly on 14 April 2020.

Sgt Kathryn Howard was born in Smith Falls, Ontario. She joined the CAF in August of 1991 as an EGS Technician and attended basic training at the CF Recruit School Cornwallis. Upon successful completion of her training she was posted to the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering in Gagetown, NB where she voluntarily transferred to the RCEME corps as a Vehicle Technician. She was posted to 1 Svc Bn, Edmonton in October of 1992 after passing her QL3 training and spent the next 4 years honing her skills as a technician.

Sgt Howard married her wife Jonna in August of 1995 and three short years later welcomed their beautiful son Dylan into the world in January of 1998. She completed her QL5 training in the early months of 1996 and was posted shortly after to the Royal Canadian Dragoons in Petawawa, Ontario. While in Petawawa, Sgt Howard deployed on two separate tours of duty. One was with Task Force Golan on OP DENACA in 1997 and the other was with the Infantry Battle Group on OP PALLADIUM to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2003.

She was posted to CFB Cold Lake in December of 2004 and bounced between 4 Construction Engineering Squadron and 4 Air Combat Service Support. She attended the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with OP PODIUM and was deployed to Afghanistan in the same year on ROTO 11.

In the summer of 2016, Sgt Howard was posted to 1 CER in Edmonton as the B-Veh Section commander. While on IR she spent countless hours on the road between Edmonton and Cold Lake visiting her family whenever she could. When a position opened up in the summer of 2017 in Cold Lake she jumped at the chance to get home and become the Maint IC for 4 CES.

Sgt Howard had several hobbies ranging from making chainmail to 3D printing various objects. She enjoyed tinkering with electronics and using her virtual reality which she brought in to the unit for some morale days. She was a very caring and empathetic person that would do anything she could to help someone in need and will be missed dearly by everyone who knew her.

“Arte et Marte”

 

Retirement messages

Blank template for retirement message available here.

For any retirement messages wished to be sent out to the RCEME family, please send to our mailbox: DND.RCEME-GEMRC.MDN@forces.gc.ca.

To receive a retirement certificate, please fill in this form and send it to the positional mailbox.

The guidelines and format can be seen in Communiqué 01-2018 here.

August 2020

  • 31 August: MWO Walton – After 35 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Corps, MWO Al Walton will retire on 31 August 2020. Congratulatory messages, anecdotes and photos can be sent by email to MWO Fieldsend Scott.Fieldsend@forces.gc.ca
  • 19 August: MWO Hickey – Master Warrant Officer Kevin Hickey will be retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces on August 19, 2020, after serving 35 plus years with the RCEME Corps. MWO Hickey would like to thanks his Wife Paula, for the numerous years of support throughout his career. Also, he wishes to thank his two Daughters Renee and Erica for having patience and understanding through numerous postings.

July 2020

  • 31 July: Cpl Leblanc – After 5 years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME), Cpl Joshua Leblanc will retire on 31 July 2020. The member has declined a Departure with Dignity (DWD) Ceremony with the current pandemic state. If you wish to contact Cpl Leblanc, please send your stories, messages and photos to WO Berkowski at Benjamin.Berkowski@forces.gc.ca, so best wishes can be passed on to Cpl Leblanc.
  • 3 July: MWO Gallant – After more than 23 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Corps (RCEME) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), MWO Patrick Gallant will retire on July 3, 2020. A departure with dignity event will take place when possible, an invitation will be sent. You can send your anecdotes, messages and photos to Sgt Labrecque at SIMON.LABRECQUE@forces.gc.ca

June 2020

  • 26 June: MWO Armstrong – After 23 years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME), Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Armstrong will retire on 26 June 2020. Due to Covid -19 restrictions a Departure with Dignity (DWD) Ceremony will be held at a later date, timing and location to be confirmed. In the interim please send your stories, messages and photos to Warrant Officer Malgorzata Kaiser at malgorzata.kaiser@forces.gc.ca.
  • 14 June: Cpl A. Muroyan – After 5 years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME), Cpl Muroyan will retire on June 14th, 2020. An official Departure with Dignity (DWD) Ceremony is not planned at this  time, but we will be saying farewell to him at a luncheon in early June. If  you wish to have any anecdotes of your experience with Cpl Muroyan read  at the luncheon, please send them to MCpl Krob at  jeremy.krob@forces.gc.ca as soon as possible.
  • 1 June: MWO P. Pipia – After more than 23 years of loyal and dedicated service to the RCEME Corps and the CAF, Master Warrant Officer Paolo Pipia has retired on June 1, 2020. There will not be a departure with dignity dinner (DWD) but he will be happy to welcome you if you come around the corner. He would like to thank everyone with whom he has worked and will have fond memories of all his great years spent in the CAF.

May 2020

April 2020

March 2020

February 2020

January 2020

December 2019

November 2019

October 2019

September 2019

August 2019

July 2019

June 2019

May 2019

April 2019

March 2019

February 2019

January 2019

2018

2017