Born and raised in Niagara Falls, CWO Shavalier joined the 57th Field Regt as a militia gunner in March 1969 and was issued with third-hand wool battledress, hobnailed boots and Korean War web gear. After hearing the clothing and meals were better in the regular force, he signed right up in 1971. As the regular force at the time was well over 80 thousand and starting to be thinned out; few trades were offered. He joined as a Rad Op and got six months of Morse code beat into his head. It left pretty quickly, he said. His first posting was to the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) in Petawawa. He participated in Exercise New Viking, when troops were trained in winter warfare in Churchill and then exercised further north. The emphasis then was on the Arctic.
He applied for a remuster to Electrician in 1973 and never looked back. He had a number of postings including: CE Petawawa; 3 Field Engineering Sqn, Chilliwack (later 1 CER); 1 Field Squadron, Petawawa; and was on the parade in 1977 when it was renamed 2 CER; UN Cyprus; CFS Churchill; SAGE CE North Bay; CFS Alert; 1 CEU Winnipeg with a great many side trips to Alert and Eureka; CFSME Chilliwack in both Military Engineering and Construction Engineering Training Squadrons, where he wrote the History of the School of Military Engineering; and Air Command HQ, Winnipeg where he was promoted to CWO. At the start of the first Gulf War, he was sent to Volk Field, Wisconsin to train US Air National Guardsmen. He was also sent to Beijing, China to review the process of our embassy under construction.
CWO Shavalier took his release under the first Forces Reduction Plan in 1992 and moved west to Chilliwack. He took a job as an Electrical Inspector with the Province of B.C. and still is employed in that capacity. He remained on the Supplementary Reserve List and after 192 CEF was stood up in Abbotsford, he was accepted for a Class A position as a WO. He enjoys watching young people come through the doors of 192 and being moulded into construction engineers. While at 192 CEF he participated in a number of Winged Beaver Exercises in the USA; Exercise Tropical Hammer in Jamaica in 2008 and a TAV to Kandahar in 2009. He will retire at CRA 60 in November as will the three different patterns of web gear, three styles of helmets and the tactical vest he wore. Under his terms of service, he must spend his last day and enter retirement as a CWO. He jokes that he will have served at each NCM rank level except M/Cpl and Sgt twice. He has no great plans except to continue working, and living in Chilliwack and participating in Legion parades as part of the Old Guard.