Retirement Event:

Having loyally served queen, country and many DND sports teams as a member of both the Reserve and Regular Forces for 40 years, Major Ed Batchelor will commence his transition to the public service in January 2016. He officially retires from the Canadian Armed Forces on 19 January 2016 (see bio below). To acknowledge and celebrate Maj Batchelor's service with the CAF and the Canadian Military Engineers, you are cordially invited to join Ed and his wife Cheryl, at the Warrant Officers' and Sergeants Mess, Ottawa, on Friday 29 January 2016, for his Depart With Dignity ceremony.

Coordinating Instructions

Location: Rockcliffe Room, Warrant Officers' and Sergeants Mess, 4 Queen Elizabeth Drive, Ottawa, ON, K2P 2HP

Timings: 1400-1700hrs. Formal ceremony will commence at 1445 hrs.

Dress: Dress of the Day or Mess business casual.

Cost: $10 per person (includes light snacks and gift contribution). Payment will be gratefully received in advance of the event when confirming attendance, or at the door.

RSVP: Please confirm your attendance to David.rowlands@forces.gc.ca and/or sandy.shearer2@forces.gc.ca NLT 22 January 2016. Please forward any congratulatory messages, photos, war stories and farewell wishes to the same email addresses NLT Wednesday, 27 January 2016.

Service Record

Major Ed Batchelor was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1959. He is a former Naval Reservist having joined HMCS Carleton in January 1976. He joined the Regular Force in 1978, and is a graduate of:

• the Royal Military College (1983) Kingston, Ontario with a Bachelor of Engineering (Engineering and Management),
• the University of New Brunswick (1992) Fredericton, New Brunswick with a Post Graduate Diploma in Mapping, Charting and Geodesy, and
• the Land Force Technical Staff Program (1998), RMC Kingston, Ontario with a Masters’ of Applied Military Science (2002).

His Regular Force Army unit employment includes a tour in Chilliwack, B.C. with 1 Combat Engineer Regiment where he was employed as a Field Troop Commander and Unit Adjutant, two tours with the Mapping and Charting Establishment (MCE) in Ottawa as the Terrain Analysis Troop Commander during which time he headed up an Arctic survey party in 1990, and in 1998 took over as the Officer Commanding Geomatics Support Squadron. Finally, he was selected for a two-year exchange tour with 42 Engineer Survey Group in Hermitage, England where he served as the Topographic Troop Commander conducting geospatially-related work in Belize, Norway and throughout Europe.

His military staff employment includes a tour with the Land Force Central Area HQ in Toronto where he was employed as G3 Operations International, responsible for the coordination of multiple deployments of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group sub-formations to Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda and in National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa within the Chief of Land Staff, Directorate of Land Strategic Planning where is was involved in developing the Army of the Future including extensive work on the Army’s Mobilization Planning.

In Jan 2001, Major Batchelor served a six-month tour in Sarajevo, Bosnia as the first Canadian Chief Geographic Officer (CGO) to operate in a deployed Corps level HQ (SFOR HQ) since WW II. From Feb-Aug 2004 he deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) HQ CGO working as the geospatial advisor to Commander ISAF, then LGen Rick Hillier.

In Sep 2004 he became the International Operations desk officer within the Directorate of Geospatial Intelligence in Ottawa, primarily responsible for the coordination of all strategic Canadian defence geospatial intelligence related activities and issues outside of Canada within the Quadripartite, NATO and Armies of the Five Nations (ABCA) communities.

In Jul 2008 he journeyed to the Washington DC area where he was employed as the senior Canadian geospatial specialist liaison officer to the US’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda, Maryland and later in Springfield, Virginia. A job that was fundamentally important in fostering the Canada/US geospatial intelligence relationship, as well as making a noteworthy contribution to the evolving and maturing Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence community.

In Aug 2012 Maj Batchelor returned back to Ottawa, remaining true to his geospatial roots and resumed employment in the Directorate of Geospatial Intelligence within the Chief Defence Intelligence organization and more recently the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command as the Land/International/ Domestic Partnerships desk officer responsible for promoting collaboration across a wide spectrum of international and domestic (federal/provincial/territorial) government partners within the geospatial intelligence domain.

Ed has his Professional Engineer Ontario designation and his other interests include group fitness instruction, volleyball, hockey and most physical challenges. He resides in Ottawa with his wife Cheryl; they have three children Breanne, Josh and Alexandra and three grandchildren Jacob, Mackenzie and Briar. Although he is taking the uniform off after 40 years of military service, he will continue to lend his expertise and corporate knowledge within the geospatial family having accepted a position to head up the Classified Mapping Program at MCE.