WO Marty Van Delen was born in Etobicoke, ON and raised in Grand Valley, ON a small town north of Toronto. He joined the CAF in 1994 first as a reservist with 11th Field Artillery Battery, then in Sep 1995 joined the regular force completing his Artillery Battle school at CFB Shilo. Upon completion, Gnr. Van Delen was swiftly posted to CFB Petawawa were he spent the next 5 years. During that time he deployed to Bosnia with the 3 RCR battle group in Jul 1998 for a 6 month tour and in Jul 1999 he was promoted to Bdr.

During his deployment to Bosnia he realized that living in the field was cold and that there were no civilian equivalent jobs for Artilleryman so he sat down and watched a few recruiting videos and decided to put in a VOTP to Firefighter. Shortly after getting home he was informed that he had to report to Borden in Sep 1999. Cpl Van Delen graduated from his QL3 firefighter course in Apr 2000 and was posted to 4 Wing Cold Lake, AB and got there just in time for Maple Flag. He spent 3 years in Cold Lake completing his QL5 Journeyman course in Apr 2002 before being posted to FA(A) Halifax in Jul 2003.

During his ship time he sailed on almost every ship the east coast has including HMCS Montreal, Ville de Quebec, Athabaskan, Preserver, Halifax, including a Gulf trip in Apr 2004 with HMCS Toronto. In Jun 2005 he was promoted to MCpl and in May 2006 he completed his PLQ. MCpl Van Delen finished his third year on HMCS Preserver as the Senior FF filling the Sgt’s role.

In Jul 2006 MCpl Van Delen was posted to Garrison Edmonton fire hall for 3 years and was happy to be back working shift work again. In Jan 2007 he was back in Borden attending his QL6A course. In Jan 2008 MCpl Van Delen was promoted to Sgt and then took over a crew as a Platoon Chief. In Jul 2009 Sgt Van Delen was posted to the Canadian Forces Fire and CBRN Academy (CFFCA), finally a posting close to home. He got right into the swing shortly after arriving, as the QL6A Course Director and teaching a course in early Sep.

After 2 years of asking for a tour, just before Christmas 2009, Sgt Van Delen found out that in Apr 2010 he was attached posted to 5 CER in CFB Valcartier where he would complete 7 months of work-up training and preparing for a deployment to Afghanistan. Sgt Van Delen deployed to Afghanistan as a Fire Chief from Nov 2010 – Jul 2011 for an 8 month tour splitting that time between KAF, Camp Nathan Smith (CNS) and FOB Ma’sum Ghar. Upon his return home and well deserved post deployment leave, Sgt Van Delen was immediately placed “back in service” and continued teaching at CFFCA. He was promoted to his current rank in 2011 and stayed at CFFCA, completed his ILP and then in 2013 was posted to the RCAF Academy.

WO Van Delen quickly settled in to his new position at the RCAF Academy helping develop the future leaders of the RCAF and filled various roles as Flt WO, Sqn WO and A/CI for 10 PLQ courses during his time there. WO Van Delen is retiring from the CAF after 20 year of service and has accepted a Senior Fire Instructor position with Calian at CFFCA. His wife Lynda, daughter Bryn, son Owen and son Cole always considered Borden a home posting and so will remain living in Angus for the foreseeable future.