Major Leonard (Lenny) Wall was born and raised in Codroy Valley, Newfoundland. Following enrolment in the Canadian Forces on 23 June 1989, he attended the Collège Militaire Royal de St-Jean until 1992 before graduating from the Royal Military College in Kingston with a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering in 1994.
During his first posting to 5e Régiment du Génie de Combat in Valcartier in 1995, he commanded a combat engineer troop, notably during a six-month operational tour to Bosnia in 1996. Upon promotion to captain in 1997, he was posted to 3 Field Engineer Regiment in Montreal as Reserve Support Staff. During this posting, he occupied the position of operations officer, notably during the 1998 ice storm, and the position of adjutant in his last year. He concurrently started a Masters degree part-time in Business Administration at Concordia University, a program that he completed in 2002.
Major Wall’s construction engineering indoctrination began in 2000 when he was posted to ASU Montreal as the Planning & Engineering Officer, a position he occupied for a year before taking over as the Facilities Manager. In 2003, upon promotion to the rank of major, he began a sponsored two-year masters program (MSc) in information systems at the University of Montreal, completed with honours in 2005. Major Wall subsequently worked for one year as the Senior Business Application Development Officer for all information systems under the responsibility of the ADM (IE), prior to being assigned to the Joint Engineer branch of CEFCOM for a four-month tasking. Much to his surprise, Major Wall’s tasking was converted to a posting to CEFCOM as the SO Comd Sec in Jan 2007, a position he occupied until assuming his current duties as A/DRAP 3, responsible for GIS and Information Management for ADM(IE), in the summer of 2008.
Having recently been chosen the successful candidate for the DRAP 3 position within ADM(IE), Major Wall will not be straying too far from the fold. He will start his first official day as a DND civilian the day after his release from the CF, on 14 Oct 2009.
On the personal level, Major Wall is married to Annie Larivière and has three children, Émilie (7), Alyssa (5), and Jérémie (3). He is looking forward to spending more time with them all in his second career. An avid sportsman, he will miss the chance to attend future CF soccer championships, but alas, his best soccer years are behind him now anyway. But these and other memories, especially the regimental camaraderie, will be cherished for years to come.