Major Kevin Billinghurst was born in Aldershot, England. He joined the British Army (Royal Engineers) in August 1978 completing almost nine years of service prior to enrolling in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in April 1987. He married Susan Marie Billinghurst from Oromocto, New Brunswick in 1981. With a combined 35 years and 263 days service in HM Forces, Maj Billinghurst will release from the CAF (Reg Force) on 10 June 14.
A combat engineer throughout his career; Kevin was commissioned from the rank of Warrant Officer in January 1998. He has served with both the 1 and 2 Combat Engineer Regiments, 4 Engineer Support Regiment, two tours at the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering (CFSME) and with the Canadian Airborne Regiment. 2002 saw a return to the United Kingdom where he spent four years on exchange with the British Army as Officer Commanding - Engineer Reconnaissance at the UK Combat Engineer School. Since commissioning he has held the appointments of Armoured Engineer Troop Commander (4ESR), Regimental Operations Officer (4ESR), Officer Commanding of an Administration Squadron (4ESR) and was Officer Commanding of the Field Engineer Training Squadron at CFSME prior to undertaking a one year posting to Afghanistan with the United States - Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) in the G3 Operations Directorate. On return from Afghanistan he spent one year as the Military Authority responsible for the Land Force Atlantic Area/Combat Training Center - Simulation Center followed by a year with the 2 RCR Battle Group (BG2021) as the Study Team Leader. In July 2011 he was posted to the Strategic Joint Staff and presently serves as an inspector in the Arms Control Verification Directorate where his primary responsibility is small arms, light weapons, conventional ammunition and man-portable air defence weapons counter-proliferation, a mission which has taken him to all points of the globe.
An experienced EOD operator, Major Billinghurst has participated in the following overseas missions: The Falkland Islands (Op CORPORATE 1983/84), Northern Ireland (Op JOLE 1986), Pakistan (Op DECIMAL 1989), Cyprus (Op SNOWGOOSE 1990), Iraq-Kuwait (Op RECORD Roto 0, 1991), Bosnia (Op ALLIANCE 1996 and Op PALLADIUM 1998), Eritrea (Op ECLIPSE 2001) and Afghanistan (Op ENDURING FREEDOM 2008/09), and multiple Op MITIGATE (some 16 worldwide weapons and ammunition counter-proliferation missions), Op VERIFY (Eurasia) and Op QUESTION (Eurasia) missions.
In addition to awards stemming from service in HM Forces, Major Billinghurst received the US Bronze Star, the US Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the NATO Medal with ISAF Bar for his service with US Forces in Afghanistan. In 2012, he was a recipient of the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Kevin has accepted a position with 36 Combat Engineer Regiment and looks forward to reconnecting with the Branch as a member of the PRES. Kevin and Susan will be retiring to the Fredericton area, having moved all the way from Oromocto back in July 13. ACV will be having a few drinks with Kevin on 20 May in Ottawa, at the Lunenburg pub from 1130 Hrs, anyone in the area able to attend, is warmly invited to attend - contact is Major Eric Perey (eric.perey@forces.gc.ca). A DwD is tentatively planned for late October under CFSME auspices, the POC is Major Pete McRae (peter.mcrae@forces.gc.ca) to which congratulatory messages or anecdotes can be sent no later than September 30th 2014.