Colonel Mark Gasparotto, MSM, CD will retire from the Canadian Armed Forces in November 2017, after more than 20 years of loyal and dedicated service to the CAF and the Canadian Military Engineer Branch. To honour his service and to wish him well in his retirement, a DwD function (jointly conducted with Col Ted Middleton) will be held Saturday evening, 14 Oct 2017 at the Cartier Square Drill Hall in Ottawa. To register for the DwD, please go to this link: : https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/
Colonel Mark Gasparotto enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1997 as a Direct Entry Officer. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He was posted to 2 Combat Engineer Regiment as a Second-Lieutenant in 1997 for on-the-job training and upon completing his military engineer phase training, returned to the unit in 1999 as 1 Troop Commander. After a brief stint at the Regiment, he was posted to 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group HQ to work in the G3 cell. During that time, then Captain Gasparotto deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina on Op PALLADIUM Roto 8 working as a psychological operations staff officer in the Multi-National Division (South West) HQ.
In 2003, then-Captain Gasparotto returned to 2 CER as Second-in-Command of 24 Field Squadron. He went on to be the Regimental Operations Officer and during that time deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as a staff officer in the Kabul Multi-National Brigade HQ Engineer Support Coordination Centre. He was promoted to major in 2004 and took command of 23 Field Squadron and deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan as part of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group in 2006. His leadership of the Squadron during combat operations earned him the Meritorious Service Medal. After the tour, along with 12 members of the Squadron, Colonel Gasparotto co-wrote, edited, and self-published the book Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar – now a documentary film.
After Squadron command, then-Major Gasparotto served as the Engineer Directing Staff at the Tactics School and Army G34 Engineer. Upon promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel, he served as the Assistant Chief of Staff to the Chief Military Engineer and as the Acting Canadian Military Engineer Branch Advisor. In 2014, Lieutenant-Colonel Gasparotto returned “home” to 2 CER one last time as the Commanding Officer. He was promoted to his current rank in 2016 and deployed to Haiti as the Operation HAMLET Task Force Commander / United Nations Military Chief of Staff and Deputy Force Commander.
Colonel Gasparotto is a licenced Professional Engineer; a graduate of the Joint Command and Staff Program, where he achieved a Masters of Defence Studies; and a graduate of Royal Roads University, where he earned a Masters of Arts in Leadership. Married to Shannon they have two daughters: Abigail and Emily. Col Gasparotto will retire in the Ottawa area and join the leadership development and consultancy firm that he co-founded.