MWO Mike J. Browning will be retiring after 23 plus years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces.

MWO Browning joined the CF in Halifax Nova Scotia, 26 Sep 1984. Upon completion of basic training and his TQ3 Field Engineer course at CFB Chilliwack, he was posted to 22 Fd Sqn, now 4ESR, at CFB Gagetown.

He then re-mustered to Topo Surveyor, in Jan 1990. Subsequent to his training he was posted to the Mapping and Charting Establishment (MCE) in Ottawa. As a Topo Surveyor he worked on various survey jobs in Gagetown, Wainwright, the Yukon (Op Bouguer), and the Military Town Plan map revision for Edmonton. As MCE went through it’s paradigm shift from the old B8’s to the Intergraph suite of software, he was employed in Digital Production (DP) Sqn as a Data Collector in Vector map and Digital Nautical Chart production, and in Image Section. With the advent of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology, he was employed as part of the team charged with creating and delivering handheld GPS training, to the CF. His experience with GPS was greatly utilized during Op Assistance, the 1997 Red River Flood in Winnipeg.

He was deployed with Op Palladium, Roto 8 in 2001, as the GST Comd for the 3RCR BG in Zgon (Mike Browning and Mike Wiggins Great Bosnian Adventure) Upon return to MCE he was employed back in DP Sqn in Digital Response Section until taking over as the 2I/C for the OJT Data Collection section. He was promoted to WO in 2002 and in 2003 was posted to Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters in Kingston.

Time in Kingston went very fast, keeping a pulse on the world, supporting training and operations, as well as deploying twice with the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to Op Structure in Sri Lanka after the tsunami in 2005. Later that year he deployed with the DART to Op Plateau in Pakistan for earthquake relief.

He was then promoted to MWO and posted back to MCE on IR in 2006 as Trg MWO and then appointed as the Squadron Sergeant Major for the School of Military Mapping.

MWO Browning will be completing his career in the CF in the spring of 2008 and taking a position with 3 Int Coy in Halifax. Both he and his wife Pam are looking forward to moving back to Nova Scotia to be with family.