Dennis joined the Canadian Forces on 29 July 1980 in London; subsequently he went to Cornwallis N.S. on the 15th August 1980. After graduating boot camp, he went to Winnipeg Manitoba for OJT, after this he was sent to beautiful Chilliwack, BC, where he commenced his first, of many Military Engineer Career courses.

Dennis was a smart individual and joined as an Air Force Carpenter, I think because of this one of his first rather long posting was to Shilo Manitoba. After a short and sunny nine years in Shilo; with a few shorter excursions to Canadian Forces Station Alert, and his Journeyman Structural Technician Course, Corporal Martin thought that Ottawa might better suit his needs.

Cpl Martin was posted to The Land Engineer Testing Establishment in 1991, where he spent a couple years building equipment to be tested. After a bit of building and being so close to Quebec Master Corporal Martin decided to learn the French language and was posted to the language school in Ottawa. With this new skill set MCpl Martin was posted to CFB Ottawa and then for a true test of his language skills in 1996 he was posted to Bagotville QC. Master Corporal Martin longed to return to his English roots and was then posted to 1 Construction Engineering Unit in Moncton, NB, here he was promoted to Sergeant and added to his design skills. With two years down and promotion to Warrant Officer in 2002 it was back to Ontario, this time CFB Borden, OPS Cell at PRTC. With his fill of Borden and much wiser to the ways of the EME Corp, WO Martin was posted to ASU Toronto, slowly making his way closer to London. In 2006 Warrant Officer Martin was promoted to Master Warrant Officer and moved position, still in Toronto. After 3 years of Toronto traffic behind him, in 2008 MWO Martin was posted to ASU London where he has been in charge of the CE inspection cell, which looks after south western Ontario.

During his career Master Warrant Officer Martin has been on around the world a few times. After having three tours in CFS Alert in the north and experiencing the full seasonal dynamic of its two seasons, kinda summer and winter then Master Corporal Martin traveled in the opposite direction to Port Au Prince, Haiti in 1995. Because of the great time he had in Haiti MCpl Martin returned in 1997 to get some more practice with his second language skills. In 1998 MCpl Martin was sent to Maceaonda until the spring of 1999. With another continent down Sgt Martin was sent to Syria in the spring of 2000 until the summer. With the mission just starting up in Afghanistan Sgt Martin was sent over to set up camp in late 2001 until the summer of 2002.

After 30 plus 1 year of service to the Crown and the Engineering Branch, Dennis has reached the next juncture in his life, and is retiring to take advantage of relaxing in London for the foreseeable future. I am sure that Dennis’s meticulous nature and attention to detail will let him find a part time hobby that will be rewarding and help occupy his time. Please congratulate Mr Martin on the next part of his life and thank him for 31 years of service to his country at home and abroad. His experience will be missed in the section.