Corporal Ken Poulton is retiring after 25 years of service on the 01 June 2009. He was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He started his career on 10 Sept 1983. After graduation from recruit training with 10 Platoon, CFB Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. On 18 Nov 1983, he went with fellow aspiring Fd Engrs to CFB Petawawa, Ontario to await training with the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering at CFB Chilliwack, British Columbia. Fd Engr MOC 041-TQ3 Course Serial 8401 commenced on 06 Jan 1984. Graduation on 10 May 1984 was an honour for “Sapper “Poulton as he was selected “Top Student” by the Commander of CFSME.
Sapper Poulton was posted to 2 CER Airborne Troop; where he started the gruelling summer of airborne training at CFB Petawawa and at the Jump school in CFB Edmonton After completing these demanding courses he became a full fledged member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment . There he attended Jungle, Desert and Arctic Warfare courses and also a myriad of different types of Commando training most notably Unarmed Combat as well as the Long Range Patrolling course. Of all the exercises he took part in, the longest was RV 85 in Wainwright, Alberta.
In March 1986 he was posted to 4 CER 3 Troop where he spent the next 52 months his whole tour of duty to CFB Lahr, Germany .Employed in every job a Cpl ,(which he was promoted to in Sept 1987),can be employed within a field troop. While in Germany he was married to Hayley, whom he has two children with, Jennifer and Christopher. Also in 1987 he took part in the Nijmegan Marches which commemorates the Liberation of Holland by allied airborne forces.
His next posting was to CFB Chilliwack in 1990, where he worked with Training Support Troop. During his posting there, he attained both the EOD-Basic qualification as well as the EOD-Improvised Explosive Device course. He became a member of EOD 24 Chilliwack as a Bomb Technician until his posting to 1CER Chilliwack in 1993.There he was employed in a field troop as well as with resources troop until June 1996 when he” saw the light” and took the Field Engineer Equipment Operator course. After completing this course in Dec 1996, he was posted back to 1 CER (which was now located in Edmonton, AB.). During his time in 1 CER; he was assigned to the Heavy Equipment Troop as an equipment operator and was deployed in 1999 to go on OP Kinetic Roto 0, the first NATO Mission to Kosovo. After the tour in Kosovo, Cpl Poulton went on a Grader course in Oct 2001.After a 7 year tour with 1CER he was posted to CFB Suffield in Jul 2003, and employed within the G3 Range Control’s Range Maintenance Troop as a Hy Eqpt Operator as well as a member of the Fd Engr’s Fencing section.
Today, after 25 years 337 days of loyal dedicated service, he has decided to move back with his father Robert Poulton, Jennifer and Christopher, Kens’ now grown children to the Poulton homestead located on beautiful St, Josephs’ Island, Ontario. He plans on building a log home on his property, plenty of room for all the acquaintances and colleagues he has met during his service to come and visit and stay for a while .To all my fellow “Sappers” any visit to the homestead will enable us to participate in the time honored privilege of expounding minor incidents into full scale episodes.