After more than 22 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineers, Sgt John MacDonald, CD, will retire on 30 June 2021. As per Sgt MacDonald’s request, no formal retirement ceremony will take place. WO P.D. Vickery can be reached at 705-424-1200 ext 7856 for questions. Anecdotes and well wishes can be sent to WO P.D. Vickery at: Peter.Vickery@forces.gc.ca.

After more than 21 years of combined service, Sgt John MacDonald has answered his last alarm bell and will retire on 30 June 2021.

Sgt MacDonald joined the CAF as an Infantry soldier on 17 Mar 1999. Upon completion of Battle School, he was posted to 1 RCR in Petawawa. A short time later, he re-badged to 1 PPCLI. Most of his time at 1 PPCLI was spent in TOW Platoon. His time in TOW Platoon saw him deploy to Bosnia in 2002 and advance to the rank of MCpl. In 2007, then MCpl MacDonald was selected for the UTPNCM program. Posted to PEI, he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology at the University of PEI in September 2009. He spent the next few years as Lt MacDonald at the Infantry and Armour School at CFB Gagetown. Lt MacDonald relinquished his commission to pursue a career as a Firefighter in the CAF. Completing the QL3 course in 2013, Cpl MacDonald was posted to 3 CDSB in Edmonton. After completing the QL4 package and DP2, he was promoted and posted to CFFCA in Borden in July 2017. He has instructed on several courses and completed DP3 in May 2019. In July 2020, he was promoted to the rank of Sgt.

Together with his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Mya, Sgt MacDonald will be moving to Edmonton to start the next chapter in his life, while being closer to his two older children, Kailan and Kolby. Sgt MacDonald will continue to work on furthering his education.