After more than 31 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Canadian Military Engineer Branch, MWO Pierre Marcotte, CD, retired on 13 January 2019.  A Depart with Dignity Ceremony will take on March 22, 2019 at 13:00 hrs at Lone Star Texas Grill located at 2880 Gibford Drive, Ottawa ON.  For planning purposes, including confirmation of attendance at the event, congratulatory messages, anecdotes, and best wishes can be forwarded to Dan Lacasse (Daniel.lacasse@forces.gc.ca) NLT 18 Mar 19.

MWO Marcotte enrolled in the CAF in November 1987 as a Combat Engineer. His first posting was in January 1989 to 4 Combat Engineer Regiment (CER) in Lahr, Germany, where he was employed as an engineer field section member, section driver, and troop command post operator. He returned to Canada, at 4 Engineer Support Regiment (ESR) in Gagetown, New-Brunswick, in November 1992, where he was employed as Regimental Quarter Master (RQMS) staff, field troop storeman, resource troop member, and Commanding Officer’s (CO) driver under Regimental Head Quarter (RHQ).

MWO Marcotte left 4 ESR, newly promoted to Master Corporal, in July 1996, to join 5ème Régiment de Génie de Combat (RGC), in Valcartier, Québec, where he was employed as an engineer field section 2 I/C, section commander, and Reconnaissance (Recce) sergeant (Sgt). He was posted to 4 Airfield Engineer Squadron (AES) in Cold Lake, Alberta, in July 2004, where he occupied the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) recce sergeant position. He successfully completed the Improvised Explosive Devise Disposal (IEDD) course in December 2005 and got his first real taste and appreciation for everything EOD. He was posted back to 5 RGC in July 2007, where he mainly occupied the position of EOD troop Warrant (tp WO), and then left for Ottawa, Ontario, in July 2010, to take on the 33 CER Operations Warrant Officer position.

MWO Marcotte attended the Master gunner course at Royal Military College (RMC), in Kingston, Ontario, from July 2011 to June 2012, followed by a posting to Ottawa as the Life Cycle Material Manager (LCMM) for EOD equipment. He completed his career at 2 CER, Petawawa, Ontario, as the 26 Counter Improvised Explosive Devise (CIED) Squadron Sergeant Major (SSM), from July 2016 until retirement in January 2019.

MWO Marcotte has completed five operational tours throughout his career: he served as a water supply section member in Kigali, Rwanda, in 1994-95; as an Engineer Field Section 2 I/C in Coralici and Zgon, Bosnia, in 1999-2000; as an Engineer Sqn recce sgt in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2004; as the EOD Tp WO and Squadron Quarter Master (SQMS) in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2009; and as Line of Effort (LOE) 2 – CIED and Engineer SSM in Kamenets-Podilsky, Ukraine, in 2018.

MWO Marcotte has accepted a civilian position within ADM (Mat) as a LCMM to provide support to the in-service EOD equipment and the CAF Counter Explosive Threat capability as a whole. Pierre has been married for 25 years and plans on staying in the Ottawa region with his wife Dianne, and his two sons Mathis (23) and Zachary (20)