After more than 40 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Military Engineers, WO Terry Warner, CD, retired on 01 March 2021. Congratulatory messages and best wishes can be sent to WO (Ret’d) C.E. Warner at Terry.Warner@sympatico.ca.

A year into the pandemic, after a career that crossed six decades wearing wool battledress and puttees in cadets, green combats, temperate and arid CADPAT, CF Greens, Work Dress, tan DEU, Garrison Dress, qualifying with the Lee Enfield in cadets, the 9mm SMG, the FN C1A1, three versions of C7 rifle, but the same pistol, three wars, and entrusted with the privilege of leadership, on 1 Mar 2021, WO Chester (Terry) Warner retired – sort of.

He grew up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. As a youth, he was in Cadets, then joined the Reserves in January 1976. Throughout post-secondary education, he served in The Sherbrooke Hussars. In 1982, he finished a degree in history at Bishop’s University and decided to release.

In 1987, he enrolled in the Regular Force and although unsuccessful on officer training, he chose to serve as an Administration Clerk. Then Private Warner had a fulfilling posting in St-Hubert including RV89, duty during the Oka Crisis before the military was publicly involved, and overseas in the Gulf and Kuwait War on Op FRICTION. On Op MAGNOLIA in spring 1991, he was promoted Acting-Lacking Corporal in Kuwait City under the oil smoke. Hard work was rewarded by a Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation for ‘meritorious or exemplary service on operations’.

In the 1990s, now Corporal Warner was a recruiter in Regina where he met and married Paulette. On staff at the flying school in Moose Jaw, he barfed through about 10 passenger hours in the Tutor. In January 1999, he remustered to Geomatics Technician at the Mapping and Charting Establishment (MCE). 

By the end of 2004, he had completed four courses, been promoted twice, and was away from his family for nearly 24 months, including six months in Bosnia on Op PALLADIUM. One memorable duty in 2000 was to stand vigil on the left foot of the Unknown Soldier as he lay in state on Parliament Hill. In 2005, now Sergeant Warner was posted to the classified floors of NDHQ, making situational awareness graphics and giving terrain analysis advice to the Governor General, the Senate, Cabinet, and commanders. An example of such advice was to describe the mud walls and grape fields in Afghanistan as obstacles which could only be overcome by Leopard tanks. His maps are mentioned in General Hillier’s book during a briefing to the incoming Prime Minister. The Defence Minister used one of his geography descriptions in a press conference. After a 2006 friendly-fire incident, an animation which he commissioned in a late-night call to the CO, was widely viewed within government.

In 2007, Sgt Warner deployed to Afghanistan for six months on Op ATHENA at the Kandahar Intelligence Fusion Centre. Working closely with RC (South) staff, he developed a series of map overlays that improved the processes for planning counter-insurgency warfare in a coalition environment.

In 2008, he was the top-rated Sgt in Chief of Defence Intelligence and was promoted to Warrant Officer. As an experienced Geo Tech, he continued in several roles at MCE, the School of Military Mapping, the Staff, and with Chief of Military Personnel.

Terry has been a contributor, assistant editor, and editor of MCE’s journal The Military Mapper. In 2014, he was named the MCE Unit Historian which included managing its non-public property and supervising co-op students. He was an on-camera subject matter expert for the video Drawn To Victory on military mapmaking and aerial photography in the First World War. That video was widely viewed on Air Canada’s inflight entertainment.

Since 2008, he has been a member of the local school board’s special education advisory committee for which he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for community involvement in 2012. In 2016, he was “invited to selections” which turned into the chance to drive a privately owned 1969 Vietnam War-era armoured car at public displays. For the record, it steers like a shopping cart.

In 2019, WO Warner received a one-year extension to complete 35 years of pensionable service and was posted as assistant to the Career Manager for ill and injured members. After a short returnto-work extension at MCE, WO Warner retired in March 2021.

Although there was no DWD, Terry has been hired by a defence contractor and remains connected to the mapper community. Terry, Paulette, and their son, Joshua, live in Ottawa and his after-hours interests include history, dog-walking, old Army jeeps, and volunteering. He can be reached at terry.warner@sympatico.ca.