Canadian Armed Forces

“I had never, ever, considered joining the Armed Forces,” said (Ret’d) Sergeant Nadia Duranleau of the Canadian Armed Forces.

“I enlisted through a set of circumstances in 1990 when I was 19 years old. My studies were going nowhere. I had a friend who had to go to the Recruitment Centre on Guy Street to get information to possibly enlist… What was bound to happen happened.”

Mr. Penney was born July 23, 1960. He is a retired Sergeant (PO2) who completed twenty years of military service in 2004. Mr. Penney served in Sarajevo as a Medic at the onset of the conflict in the Balkans and was awarded the Medal of Bravery for his heroic actions while in theatre. He is credited with saving the life of a child in the midst of a bombing. Mr. Penney now resides in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife and children.

Mr. Desmeules was born in 1950 in Jonquière, Québec. With little work in his hometown community, Mr. Desmeules decided to join the Canadian Armed Forces, considering it as an opportunity to travel. At 18 years of age, Mr. Desmeules initially joined the Navy taking up the service occupation of administrative clerk. With this occupation being very generic to all branches of service, Mr. Desmeules later joined the army and, in 1975, he accepted an opportunity to travel to Egypt with the Signal Regiment. In 1995, Mr.

Michel Béliveau joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1993. After finishing his training, he deployed to Bosnia as a medical assistant, twice, during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He then left the force to work as a paramedic for a number of years before re-enrolling in 2001.

Originally from the Québec city area, Major Martin Colbert discovered a liking for the military at a young age when he joined Army Cadets. Appreciating the structure, team spirit and adventures experienced with the Cadets, he made the leap to the CAF in 1984, at the age of 18.

Maryse Carmichael was born in Québec City in 1971. The youngest of four children, she couldn’t help but look up to her older siblings.

“… I thought, if he can do it, I’m pretty sure I can.”

For years after his release from the Canadian military Chief Petty Officer Second Class (Retd) Marty Boudreau’s mental health kept him—literally and figuratively—stuck in the basement.

Martine Roy says she was a “little bit punk” when she joined the Army in the summer of 1983.

“I had really spiky hair, honestly, I didn't know what I was doing,” the Montreal native remembers.

She made daily calls telling her Mom she wanted to come home, that the rules and regulations of military life weren’t for her.

“I was scared. I was saying ‘get me out of here, where am I? They’re crazy,’” she said.

Nevertheless, she persisted—with her basic training and English language training.

His first posting was to central Alberta in the early 1980s, to a communication and radar station (a “Diefenbunker”) in Penhold. His first deployment outside North America came in 1985. while serving with the 1st Canadian Signals Regiment (1CSR) when he deployed to the Golan Heights as part of the UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force).

“Flying into Damascus while looking over the cities you’re flying over,” Charlton says “You would see the surface to air missiles that were surrounding the airport.”

Marc-Daniel was born in Montreal in 1984. He studied at Collège Ahuntsic in Montreal and considered working in a prison, but a colleague who was in the process of joining the Canadian Armed Forces inspired him to enlist. Marc-Daniel joined the infantry when he was 24. The war in Afghanistan was raging, and he felt compelled to do his part. He trained in Saint-Jean and at CFB Valcartier.

“The infantry was demanding. I was motivated by the possibility of deploying quickly.”