WO Denis Baril joined the CF in Oct 1984 where he attended Recruit School at Cornwallis. From there he went to Chilliwack BC to attend his TQ3 Field Engineer course where he placed very well. He was one of the few 8 or 9 soldiers who finished the very famous “run of hell” right after two or three servings of chicken at the Wet Gap. Denis found he liked Chilliwack so much (probably liked the shooter bars) that he was posted immediately to 1 CER where he stayed for about a year. Throughout the year, Denis, a graduate at Loyalist College in Trenton, ON put in his VOT to transfer to Topographical Surveyor. In those days, you had to pass the 6 month course prior to be occupationally transferred. WO Baril passed the course in July 86 and was transferred into the Topographical Surveyor occupation and posted to Mapping and Charting Establishment in Ottawa.

From 1986 - 1992, WO Baril has participated on survey parties up above the 66th parallel, on airfield surveys, done map revisions of Military Town Plans, and has compiled some Training Area Maps. From 1992 – 1993, Denis was an integral part of the VMAP and DNC production initiative at MCE. This period of time is not counted as one of his most memorable times as no surveyor wants to be stuck to a computer going data, data, data all day.

In 1997, WO Baril along with the rest of the Map Reproduction Technicians and Topographical Surveyors became Geomatics Technicians when the occupations were merged. As a Geo Tech, has been posted to J2 Imagery in Ottawa and has deployed twice, once to Bosnia and the other to Kabul. After his deployments, WO Baril was posted to the School of Military Mapping as a Course WO for a pilot QL5 course being given at Algonquin College. Due to his hard work and due diligence, the pilot course has been successful in preparing our future Geo Techs for future operations.

WO Denis Baril is married to a lovely lady, Heather, who is able to put up with his demands for watching the Masters and playing golf whenever he can.