MWO Craig Tucker is retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) on 01 January 2017 after 33+ years of dedicated service. See bio attached.
MWO Tucker will be retiring his uniform, however he will be continuing to work at CFHA for his vol rehab until 1 Jan 2017. His DwD will be held in Gagetown on 15 Jun 2016. Messages, anecdotes or photos can be sent to WO RK MacNeil
MWO Craig Tucker was born in St. John’s Newfoundland. He enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1983; however his military pathway started much earlier than that. In 1976 as a young boy Craig joined the Army Cadets, “Engineers”. Some of his highlights while in cadets were his trip to England where he worked with the 3rd battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment; he also took his “Basic Para course” in Edmonton Alberta and went to Germany on a REFORGER exercise for a month with 3 RCR. Needless to say those experiences gave him a great foundation for his future career in the CAF.
During his CAF adventure, Craig has had a very colourful career; he started out as a 291er ”Communications Research” in Kingston, ON, and after a quick 6 week trip to Alert NWT decided enough of that, and changed trades to 031 Infantry. He spent 6 ½ years with 1 PPCLI in Calgary Alberta and obtained the rank of MCpl in 1987. During his time with the 1 PPCLI he spent much of his time in Wainwright Alberta and even went to Wainwright Alaska, USA for a winter exercise (There is no getting away from Wainwright). While in the PPCLI he performed various jobs from AVGP (Grizzly) driver, stores man, OCs driver, Section commander, TOW gunner and Range Control 2 I /c etc…. He provided security for the commonwealth conference in Kelowna BC and instructed an Infantry QL3 course. Craig is very proud and grateful to have served with the PPCLI, as much of these experiences served him well throughout his career.
In 1989 Craig was once again on a different career path, he relinquished his rank in the infantry and remustered to 621 RM Tech, at which time he was sent to Chilliwack BC to learn a new trade. Upon completion of his trades training Craig was posted to Shearwater, NS, where he completed his QL-5s, and participated in Engineer exchange programs in Gulfport Mississippi and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA. He also completed his first UN tour to the former Yugoslavia 92/93 (Croatia) and provided security for the G7 Summit in Halifax in 1995.
Shortly after his UN tour in 1995, Craig found himself back in his home province of Newfoundland, to CFS Gander, which he found to be a great place to work and to hone his trade skills on the variety of old and new equipment. While in Gander, Craig found himself maintaining and operating the Aircraft Arrestor systems (AAS) and mechanical radar maintenance on the Canadian Coastal Radar. He as well became a volunteer Fire Fighter and Hazmat co-ordinator. In 97/98, Craig went on his second UN tour, this time to the Golan Heights in Israeli occupied Syria. In 1998 Craig was once again promoted to MCpl and in 2000, he yet again moved, this time to 86 ASU in Trenton, to work on the AAS.
86 ASU was a very busy place; Craig not only did the AAS overhauls and installations he also was deployed to support numerous Air Shows each year across Canada and the USA for Op CONNECTION and Inuvik for Canadian Sovereignty deployments. While at 86 ASU Craig also completed his third UN Tour in the Golan Heights (01/02) and also went to Camp Mirage (03/04) to work on his tan. While at 86 ASU, MWO Tucker received multiple promotions, and it is here that he carved his way from MCpl to MWO.
In 2007, now MWO Tucker took another posting, this time to ASU London as CE QA looking after the Armouries in SW Ontario. This posting lasted 10 months as in 2008, 1 CAD called upon his serviced to be the 641 RM Tech Snr Trade Advisor and AAS LCMM. Craig is particularly proud of his time spent at 1 CAD where he was very busy conducting inspections on AAS, Radar and Halocarbon systems and with the AAS Modernization project. He spent about 85% of his time on the road racking up approximately 50 000 miles every year.
In 2012 MWO Tucker was posted to CFSME, as CEMS SSM, where he worked with talented and dedicated people. While at CFSME, he along with the CEMS instructors spent time trying to mold young Officers into future leaders. While in Gagetown MWO Tucker was the President of the Gagetown Chapter of the CMEA where he recruited approx. 1500 new Engineers into the association and brought the Gagetown chapter from 72 members to over 400.
As Craig winds-down his military career in the Fredericton area, he plans on conducting home inspections in his spare leisure time. He and his wife Yvonne; who has supported him throughout his adventures, now plan on spend quality time together while putting many miles on their ATV and spending quality time with their family and friends