Jason Porteous was born in Sudbury, Ontario, growing up in various northern Ontario communities before graduating high school in Marathon ON and enrolling in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1990. After completing BOTC in Chilliwack B.C. he carried on to Kingston to attend Royal Military College. Early on in his four years at college he met his future wife Kelly Wilson. They were married in early May 1994 prior to graduation when he received his undergrad degree in Civil Engineering.
After graduating LCol Porteous and his newly wed wife were posted to Chilliwack B.C. where he completed phase training as a Military Engineer (Air) in early 1995. Upon completing training and a brief pause awaiting the birth of their first child, he and his small family were posted to 22 Wing. During two years in North Bay he worked as Production Officer, Engineering Officer and held the position of Wing Environment Officer. Also during this time he was promoted to Capt.
Posted to 8 Wing Trenton in 1997, he spent two years as the WCE Engineering Officer. During this time he and his wife welcomed the arrival of their second child to the family. Also during this time he was advised of and submitted for Post Graduate training at RMC. Surprisingly (at least to him), he was accepted into the Civil Engineering PG program on his first try and was posted back to Kingston in 1999.
During his two years of study he completed a Masters of Applied Science (Structural) for courses and a research thesis into the repair and strengthening of damaged concrete beams using carbon fibre laminates. Also during this time he and his wife welcomed the birth of their third child to the family.
At the completion of his PG degree in 2001 he remained at RMC and joined the Civil Engineering faculty as a military lecturer, spending two years teaching introductory courses on reinforced concrete design and strength of materials. Also during this time he and his wife welcomed the arrival of their fourth child to the family.
Posted to Halifax in 2003, he spent the next four years supporting the Navy, working in various challenging and rewarding positions within Formation Construction Engineering as the Dep Operations Officer, Operations Officer, and Executive Officer.
After an extensive career within CE, he jumped at the opportunity for an operational tour and in 2007 he was nominated for a position with Roto 5, TF Afghanistan. Following a protracted training schedule with the lead mounting area in Edmonton, he was promoted to Maj in January 2008 and deployed as the Officer Commanding the Engineer Support Unit from February to September of that same year.
Upon his return from Afghanistan in late 2008, LCol Porteous completed a short stint with CANOSCOM OS Engineer in Ottawa before moving upstairs to CEFCOM Joint Engineer where he took over the General Support Engineer desk officer. From this position he continued to be involved in the Afghan mission, working closely with all the deploying rotations, providing support to the ongoing sustainment operations and was intimately involved in the planning for the Mission Transition Task Force close out of the Canadian portion of Kandahar Airfield.
In 2011, LCol Porteous was appointed Commanding Officer of 4 Construction Engineering Squadron and posted to 4 Wing Cold Lake for the next three years. Tasked with readiness training for the Construction Engineering units across the CAF, the unit provided refresher training on camp bed-down to numerous CE Flights entering high readiness and deploying on international missions as well as giving specialty engineering training on airfield reconnaissance in support of RCAF operations.
Posted back to Ottawa in 2014, LCol Porteous was promoted to his present rank in October of that year and held two different staff officer positions with the RCAF Headquarters, one as Director Air Staff Coordination and the other as D Air Support 3. In the later position, he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating the RCAF infrastructure and facilities program for all RCAF Wings and providing Engineer advice to the senior RCAF leadership.
After three years in the RCAF HQ, LCol Porteous was posted in 2017 to ADM(Mat), to the Future Fighter Capability Project as the Infrastructure Section Head. In this capacity, he has provided guidance within the PMO on infrastructure related affairs, provided infrastructure input to various project documentation and has worked at trying to nail down infrastructure requirements of the project through a multitude of planning meetings with stakeholders, Supplier engagements and visits to both domestic and allied nation fighter bases.
For those who didn’t keep track, LCol Porteous and his wife Kelly have four awesome children including Earl (23), Abigail (20), Isaac (18), and Eliza Jane (15).
LCol Porteous would like to invite all those family, friends, and colleagues who would like to celebrate the end of this phase of his career to join him on 29 Aug 18 at 1130hrs at the RCAF Officers’ Mess.