MWO Phil Groleau will be retiring from the CF on 15 Oct 2010 after 22 + years of service.
Born and raised in Valleyfield QC, MWO Groleau enrolled in the Canadian Forces on August 9th, 1988 in Montreal as a direct entry Firefighter. After basic training in Saint-Jean, Pte Groleau found himself at CFLS in CFB Borden for his English language training for 6 months, followed by his Basic Driver Training (BDT) and finally his QL3 Firefighter.
After his QL3, he was posted to 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S. for five years where he got advanced promoted to Cpl.
Cpl Groleau went from Greenwood to Winnipeg where he spent three years. He was then posted as a MCpl on HMCS Algonquin in Esquimalt where he spent 3 years as a MCpl and 1 as a Sgt. This was one of the highlight of his career. He traveled and visited Australia, Hawaii, China, Japan, San Diego, Manila, Pago Pago and Guam just to name a few.
After this long vacation it was time to go back to work, so the CM brought him back East to Bagotville, where he spent 4 years. During that time, he worked 2 years on crews and 2 years as the Chief Fire Inspector. He was also deployed to Camp Mirage in Dubai for 6 months.
He was then transferred to North Bay as the Wing Fire Chief for a very short posting of 1 year where he was promoted to a WO.
Due to that promotion he was posted to 19 Wing Comox where he was a Platoon Chief for 4 years. During that posting he participated in OP PODIUM (2010 Vancouver Olympic) as the D/TFFM. He also completed his ALQ, ILQ, Hazmat IC and QL6B while in Comox.
In June 2010 he was promoted to MWO and transferred to 3 Wing Bagotville where he worked as the Deputy Fire Chief.
Phil and Martine are moving to Cornwall / Valleyfield area where they plan to enjoy life and start the second part of their lives.