MGen // Mgén Derek Basinger, OMM, CD
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After more than 35 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineer Branch, MGen Derek Basinger, OMM, CD, will retire on 31 August 2023. Anecdotes or well wishes may be sent to LCol P. Piotrowski at Peter.Piotrowski@forces.gc.ca.
Major-General Derek Basinger joined the Canadian Army as a Reservist in December 1985. Upon finishing high school he entered the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Kingston graduating in 1991 with a Civil Engineering degree.
He has served with 1 Combat Engineer Regiment (Chilliwack, Edmonton and Croatia), with 2 Combat Engineer Regiment (Petawawa and Bosnia) and commanded 4 Engineer Support Regiment in Gagetown. He also deployed to Kandahar as Task Force Engineer and Chief of Staff for Task Force Afghanistan. Between Regimental postings Major-General Basinger has instructed at the Army Tactics School, the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering, coordinated exercises for the National Strategic Studies Program at the Canadian Forces College and led a seminar at the United States Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS). He was Commandant of the Canadian Army Command and Staff College in Fort Frontenac, Kingston from 2016 until 2018.
Major-General Basinger is a graduate of the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College, the Canadian Forces College, and SAMS. Since receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, he has received a Master’s in Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Kingston, a Master’s of Military Art and Science in Strategic Studies from the United States Army Command and General Staff College, and is a member in good standing of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick.
Posted to Ottawa in 2012, Major-General Basinger has worked in the Strategic Joint Staff on Force Posture and Readiness, in Chief Force Development as both the Director Capability Integration, and Director-General of Capability and Structure Integration, and in the Army Staff as Director Army Staff. From 2015 until 2018 he was appointed Director of the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers. In March 2018, Major-General Basinger assumed the duties of Director-General Capability and Structure Integration within Chief Force Development. In April 2021, he was promoted to his current rank and assumed the duties of Chief of Staff – Materiel Group
None of this would have been possible without the loving and steadfast support provided by his wife and their two awesome kids.