Published April 29, 2014 · By wkadmin
Capt Daniel J.R.L. Cyr a native of Montréal, joined the regular forces in June 1972 as a Traffic Technician. Upon completion of his trade training, he was posted to 3 AMU Ottawa. He was attached to MAMS team 2 where he deployed on several domestic and international operations to name a few Op DANACA Egypt, BOXTOP the resupply of CFS Alert, the 1976 Montreal Olympic as well as several NATO and domestic exercises. In the summer of 1976 after serving four months at the Mirabel airport during the Olympics, Capt Cyr was selected for aircrew duties, from September to December 1976, he attended 426 Sqn C-130 Hercules Loadmaster training. Upon graduation in Dec 1976 he was posted to 436 Transport Sqn in Trenton where he logged in over 1500 hrs of flying hours in two years prior to his Remuster to the Engineer family as a Topographical Surveyor in February 1979.
Upon completion of his new trade qualification level, Capt Cyr was part of several survey parties including Op Arctic 84 on the Northern part of Ellesmere Island and many airfield survey across Canada. In 1984 after completing his QL 6a Topographical Surveyor Training then Sgt Cyr was transferred to the new Terrain Analysis Section of MCE. In 1986, he was selected to attend the Advanced Terrain Analysis Course in Fort Belvoir. Sgt Cyr successfully completed the course as the first foreigner of the Defence Mapping School to be top graduate on one of their courses. Upon return to Canada in Aug 86, he was promoted to Warrant Officer and appointed as the Terrain Analysis section commander. TERA was a novelty in the CF at that time and to showcase this new capability the section was on continuous rotation between all the Army exercises as well as developing TTADB for all its training base. Much time was spent away from home in those early days of Terrain Analysis.
In 1989, WO Cyr was posted to the newly formed 1 Intelligence Company as the senior Terrain Analyst. From there the TERA team carried on the tradition of deploying on all Army exercises. Of note, the deployment on Op Salon from Apr until Oct 90 where they devoted their time with the WESCAM surveillance system with the RCMP.
In 1991, WO Cyr returned to Ottawa in D Carto in the newly opened GIS lab where they tested and evaluated new hardware and software developed by both government and industry to be used by the CF for their GIS systems. It is during that time that the first DGSS was developed. In 1993, promoted MWO he was posted back to MCE as the Tech MWO / Tp Comd in Geo Sp Sqn. In 1995 NATO opened up a new position in HQ AFSOUTH in Naples, Italy, MWO Cyr was posted to the position as the Senior Terrain Analyst. His position required him to travel extensively throughout the HQ AFSOUTH AOR as well as doing the shuttle between Naples and Sarajevo during the entire IFOR mission. MWO Cyr received the De Fleury medals from the US Engineers for work that he did during that NATO led mission. On his return to Canada in 1997 MWO Cyr was posted back to MCE in DP Sqn as Tech MWO for the VMAP project. In 1998, he was transferred to Geo Sp Sqn where he was appointed SSM of the Sqn. From there he deployed again to Bosnia on the SFOR 7 as the Geomatics Technical control Officer. On his return in the fall of 2001 he was transferred to School of Military Mapping as the Chief Instructor a position he held for two years until he was promoted in 2003 to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer, he was appointed MCE RSM a position he held for three years until he was commissioned in 2006 and took over as the MCE Adjutant.
Capt Cyr has been married since 1975 to née Colleen Broderick; they have two sons Jonathan and Alexandre. Capt Cyr is retiring from the Regular Forces on 19 April 2009; where upon his retirement he will be joining the Primary Reserve as the “Canada First Geospatial Intelligence Database Coordinator”, a position with the Directorate Geospatial Intelligence in Ottawa