First Name	Art
Last Name	Samuels
Rank, or rank last held	MCpl
Serving or Retired / Year Retired	Serving (Retiring 31 May 2011)
Regular or Reserve Forces & Element	Regular
Year Enrolled & # of Years Served	1978 Res till 1983 - 1983 till 2011 Reg
E-mail address's Home/Work	armyart3@persona.ca

 

Current Posting if serving	CFB Wainwright
Current Position if serving or last position held	Catering 2 IC
Medals, Honours & Awards	QGJM, Peacekeeping, Afghanistan, Bosian, CD1

 

Home address	Wainwright Alberta
Home phone / Cell phone #'s
Work phone #
Web Page / Site

Family Information

Spouse / Partner
Children's names & ages	Jayden-7, Jemma-13, AJ-22, Nathan-21, Ambber-20, Zeke-29

 

If retired, what are doing currently doing?

History of Service / Bio (please be somewhat detailed)

Halifax after leaving the army cadets until old enough to join Reserves. 1st FD Arty in Halifax a great time as an 021 Artymn then the bug came to do more in the real army as it was called. Wanted to join the Regs as an Artymn but was told I was colour blind and had to take a cooks pos as I had just graduated from cooking school. (they lied I had perfect vision) but at that time and age who do you tell. I left a lot of good people behind in W BTY. (STILL MAD AT THAT). 1st posting as a cook was CFB Chatham NB in 83, MWO Bob Gosse was head cheese and Sgt Reg Munn was #2 at the kitchen. They meant well at the time and I still have good memories of them, especially when Bob tried to show the cooks how to light the pilot light on the grill and blew off all his eyebrows and top of his hair. Too funny. (no injuries tho). Then it was off to St. Margaret's down the road and cooked thee for awhile meeting two mentors along the way, Al Roy and Sgt JM Chaisson. We had a great crew then and I have still them to thank for bringing the human perspective to the trade and along with a few tricks that I will not tell any one. Shortly after that I went back to Chatham to be part of the new Army as the Air Defense came to town from Germany and I was the first cook assigned a position in the Kitchen followed by Sgt John McNaughton of the Black Watch. Oh the Stories that went on after that as I met a few of my past Arty buddies and made some new ones (I was Home at last). But not for long as Gagetown came calling and with the AD unit in Chatham moving a sect to Gagetown I was traded to 2 RCR L Coy.6 yrs and two tours later off to OKA Quebec and did my best to keep the troops happy as we got the bad side of the coin there. Altho I do remember the Nez Rouge exercises on Valcartier they were a good back drop for the Royal Rumbles we had between us the Royal 2nd Regt and the Royal 22e  Regt of Vandoos. I'm sure some of the guys have a few scars to look at today(try to remember). Well then it's off to Sunny Comox and the place I told them I would Retire back then.(more on that later) So me and (Family) got there in 93 in August by Feb of 94 I am serving D papers to the other half. You take some chances in life and you have to remind yourself that you are not the only one to do so. Moving on with all the legal stuff out of the way before leaving I met Glenna, I asked her to take the next journey with me and she said yes. My life long dream was to do all three elements of the military and the Navy came calling in 97. By  98 I was at sea on the Freddy then to the Atha B then to the Montreal were in 10 MONTHS at sea we just finished Expo in Lisbon and on our way home a plane goes down in Peggy's Cove. After months of support duties on sea and land I got a posting to Preserver and had One hell of a time there.(one sad note tho as I was on leave to bury my mother in T.O. I was on a plane over the Pearson airport for almost 4.5 hours as they were trying to get a landing spot because some individuals decided to send two planes into the twin towers in NY. Imagine the phone calls at home when 8 hours after leaving the Hfx Airport and still not landing in Toronto ). After the navy it was the wild west calling as the 3 Btn  3PPCLI Edmonton drafted me and I tried to become a real soldier. I said how bad could it be. Due to a previous accident that happened on board ship my hips were in no condition to go thru the hoops laid out before me in this Battle Hardened Battalion. Aches and pains aplenty and they would have none of it. It was not until after I got a easier job in Wainwright followed by a hip replacement that they took notice. Oh WELL….Since 1974 I have been putting on some military uniform from Cadets to Ref Force. In all those years I have had the Honour of doing it Proudly and with a few friends along that way. To those I have met it has been a pleasure and to those I have not met I hope to meet you soon. Date of retirement 31 May 2011.

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