Maj Y.K. Pratt, CD will retire from the Canadian Armed Forces on 5 Dec 2016 after more than 27 years of loyal and dedicated service to the CAF and the CME Branch. (please see bio attached).
Congratulatory messages, anecdotes, photos, and farewell wishes can be forwarded to Capt F. Monette-Saillant
Maj Pratt joined the CAF in 1989 as a Military Engineer (MilE)–Land. In 1993, she transferred to MilE-Air due to her primary interest in construction engineering. She did her MilE Phase Training from 1991-1994 at CFSME in CFB Chilliwack and the Chilcotin Training Area between and after academic years at military college while getting her BEng (Civil).
As a junior officer, Maj Pratt’s first posting was to 14 Wing Greenwood where she served as Contracts Officer, Production Officer and Airfield Engineering Flight (AEF) Commander. The posting ended in 1997 with the AEF deploying to Haiti for UNSMIH/UNTMIH for six months. Upon return to Canada, Maj Pratt was posted to 4 Airfield Engineering Squadron (AES) HQ in Cold Lake where she was Ops O then Trg O, including taskings for Y2K in Trenton and as a Flt Comd at CFSME. She was posted to 9 Wing Gander as the Wing Construction Engineering Officer in 2001 and was the Acting A4 during the Wing’s response to 9/11. In 2002, she moved to CFSME, which had moved to Gagetown, as first the 2ic of the Construction and Airfield Engineering Flight and then the Construction and Airfield Engineering Standards Officer.
Maj Pratt was then honored to represent Canada as the Exchange Officer to the Air National Guard (ANG) Readiness Centre (operational-level HQ) at Andrews Air Force Base as the Civil Engineer Operations Branch Ops O (CEXO) during the 2005 response to Hurricane Katrina then as The ANG Civil Engineer and NGB/A7’s Executive Officer.
Upon promotion in 2007, her tour with the ANG was cut short and Maj Pratt reported for duty as the General Engineering Support staff officer in the JEngr Branch at Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command (CEFCOM). She was awarded the Commander’s Commendation for her contribution to the initial deployment of the Air Wing to Kandahar. In 2009, Maj Pratt moved cubicles to downtown Ottawa on the Air Staff (D Air Prog 3-2) and focused on RCAF major capital construction projects. She was selected as the Theatre/Task Force Engineer for Op MOBILE in 2011 and deployed to Italy for seven months including theatre activation and deactivation. Back in Canada, Maj Pratt was posted to Esquimalt in 2012, and took on the roles of Engineering Officer and Executive Officer (RO) at Base Construction Engineering before becoming the first Officer Commanding Real Property Operations Section (Esquimalt) on 1 Apr 2015. Maj Pratt’s final posting was to the Joint Personnel Support Unit and she will retire in Dec 2016 with more than 10,000 days (27+ years) of service.
Chimo!