After 40 + years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Canadian Military Engineer Branch, MWO Anthony Hastie, CD will retire on 23 August 2017. MWO Hastie will be having a private informal DWD luncheon. Congratulatory messages or anecdotes can be sent to the OPI, MWO Steve Rose at Steve.Rose@forces.gc.ca<
He joined the military in September of 1976 and upon completion of QL 3 in May 1977, he was posted to 3 Field Squadron in Chillawack B C. In 1978 the unit was renamed 1 Combat Engineer Regiment. From May to July of 1978 he was in Alert NWT on a crusher crew, drilling and blasting to create gravel for the airfield and other projects in Alert. After a few trips to Wainwright on different exercises, he had the opportunity to go to Cyprus as augmentation to the Strathconas for the period of October 1979 to April 1980.
When he returned to Canada he completed his QL 5A course, in October 1980 and was promoted Cpl in the POL section. After more trips to Wainwright, and completion of his CLC at the PPCLI battle school in Wainwright in 1981 he returned to 1CER and went into the dump section of support squadron. In the summer of 1983 he was sent to Eureka NWT to assist in the maintenance of a road from the base to the radar site. In the summer of 1984, Tony was given the chance to become a heavy equipment operator, when he finished the course he went back to the regiment and into heavy equipment section.
In 1985, about half way through RV 85, he got a posting message to go to 4 CER in Germany. His family started to do the packing and were ready to go when he got back from exercise. Tony was posted into the resources troop in 4 CER and was responsible for transporting the spare AVLB Bridge. In January of 1986 he returned to Chillawack for the crane course and then was put into heavy equipment troop on return to 4 CER.
In 1986 the forces made the decision to create the 042 Field Engineer Equipment Operator trade and Tony was accepted into the new trade. The next year he was posted to Airfield Damage Repair Squadron in Lahr, where they performed the first NATO Accreditation in airfield repair for Canada. Over the next three years while posted to ADR, Tony went to Gagetown on a Leopard D&M course and an AVLB course.
In August of 1990 Tony was posted back to 1 CER in Chillawack to carry on in the heavy equipment trade. From April to October of 1991 he was on UN duty in Kuwait with the first rotation to do all of the demining and the setup of the observer posts. From October of 1992 to April of 1993 he was on UN duty in Croatia, doing construction work for all of the different contingents. In July of 1993 Tony was promoted to MCpl.
In January of 1994 He went on his QL 6A course and then back to 1 CER where he was employed as a section 2 i/c, and section commander until January of 1995. In January of 1995, Tony was attach posted to the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineers, as an instructor for the heavy equipment school. While there, he was promoted to the rank of Sargent.
In August of 1996, 1 CER moved from the sunny Frazer Valley in B.C. to Edmonton Alberta where Tony was employed as a section commander in heavy equipment troop for the next year. From July of 1997 until January of 1998 he was a Det commander in armoured troop, then became the acting troop commander for six months.
In August 1998, Tony was posted to CFSME in Gagetown as an instructor in heavy equipment. While there he attended his QL 6B course from January to April of 1999, and was promoted to Warrant Officer in May 1999. Then he was employed as the cell supervisor for the heavy equipment troop and the SME of the roads cell at the school.
In Jul 2001 Tony returned to 1 CER as the Troop WO in heavy equipment troop until 2002 where off he went to Bosnia on ROTO 11 as a composite Troop WO. He was the regimental Ops NCO upon return and the regimental training NCO until getting posted to Wainwright to run the Engineer Equipment Troop, which controlled all bridging assets for LFWA. After three years of doing the IR thing in Wainwright he was posted back to 1 CER in March 2007 as an MWO to be employed as the sergeant major for Counter IED in preparation to go to Afghanistan in Feb 2008.
Upon return to Canadian soil he took over as the SSM for 13 Armored Squadron from Oct 2008 until July 2009 then moved to 18 Admin Squadron as the SSM and many days and weeks as the A/RSM. In July of 2010 Tony was posted to the Area Engineer shop as the Engineer Ops NCO, while there he deployed to Winnipeg on OP LUSTRE in 2011 and became the Acting Engineer Ops O in March 2012.
In July of 2012 Tony was once again on the road to a new posting, this time it was back to where he grew up at LFCA TC Meaford as the training Company SM. While in Meaford Tony has served as training Coy SM, standards SM and as a member of the contract management team / Company SM. So after more than 40 years of service when the CM said it was time to move again and as Tony and Debra are settled into life in Ontario he decided it was time to pull pin.
Tony and Debra will be staying in Eugenia Lake Ontario for now to enjoy family and friends