After more than 35 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineers Branch, MWO Melee, CD, retired on 15 Jun 2022. Anecdotes and retirement wishes may be sent to MCpl L.A. Arnold at Lindsay.Arnold2@forces.gc.ca.
MWO Melee was born and raised in St. John’s, NL. He started his military career with The Royal Canadian Sea Cadets in 1980 and after graduating from high school in 1985, he joined 56 Field Engineer Regiment in St. John’s. In 1985, his time as a Field Engineer was limited to only five months when he enlisted in the Regular Force as a Naval Weapons Technician (NWT). As an NWT, he was posted to three different ship classes and spent 845 days at sea. He deployed for three six-month tours with the Standing NATO Fleet Atlantic, one of which was a six-month stint in the Adriatic Sea during the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict.
Towards the end of his naval career, he was posted to Ottawa for the stand-up of Maritime Staff at NDHQ, where he was employed as a database manager for the Naval Career Managers and as a Naval Incremental Tasker. While working with Maritime Staff, he decided to pursue a new career path. In 2000, he re-mustered to Geomatics Technician.
In July 2003, immediately following his Geomatics OJT, he deployed to Banja Luka, Bosnia, for six months and worked in a multi-national environment. Upon returning from this tour, he worked at the Mapping and Charting Establishment, both as an operator and as a Section Commander. In 2005, he was posted to Trinity in Halifax, where he spent the next three years supporting JTFA and MARLANT.
In 2009, he was promoted to Warrant Officer and posted to the Hydrographic Services office in Halifax, where he worked for the next three years. He deployed to Afghanistan with JTF2, working with the Special Operations Intelligence Center for six months. Upon his return to Canada, he was posted back to Trinity and transferred from the Regular Force to the Primary Reserve in Aug 2014 with 29 years of service in the CAF.
While in the Primary Reserve, MWO Melee worked at 36 CBG HQ, 5 Div HQ, and 1st Fd Regt in Halifax, where he served as the BSM of 51 Battery for three years. In 2018, he moved to Gander and joined 5 CRPG. His time there was limited mostly to Class A service, spending a little over a year as the SM of the JCR program.
MWO Melee retired in June with more than 35 years of service in the CAF. He plans on enjoying the outdoors of Newfoundland, spending his quality time fishing, hunting, ATVing, and relaxing at his cabin. And to quote MWO Melee “Get busy living while I’m living”.