Hi and thank you for visiting! My name is Mark, and I would really like to tell you a bit about my life. I was born April 7th, 1970. I grew up in a town of approximately 1900 people. This town is called Mitchell, Ontario which is 45 minutes north of London, Ontario. It is a very quiet town and quite peaceful. I attended Mitchell Public School as well as Mitchell District High School.
I graduated from Mitchell District High School in 1988 and began working at Duracol Manufacturing. What we did there was made sound barriers like the ones you see along Hwy 401 or any other highway where there are housing developements along a busy highway. From there I went to the Mitchell Co-op which is now called Perth County Co-op. What I did there was bagged feed, delivered feed, operated the town grain elevator. Thanks to my father I was taught alot from him.
At that time I really didn't think of what else I could do with my life, no money to go to college, so my mother happened to find a newspaper clipping advertising the Canadian Armed Forces and I threw it in the garbage. Later on that week, I gave some serious thought to the newspaper clipping, pulled it out of the garbage and called.
I made an appointment to do apptitude tests and interviews and in January of 1990 I went to London, Ontario to the Recruiting Centre and did the testings. I returned home after a few hours and waited for the phone call. I got the call and signed the contract for the Canadian Armed Forces on February 13, 1990 and on February 23, 1990 I was boarded onto a military plane in Trenton, Ontario and was on my way to CFB Cornwallis, Nova Scotia for 10 weeks of basic training. Some of the training was easy but some was difficult as well. In the middle of May that same year I graduated from Basic Training - 4 Platoon, Course 9008. I was then transferred to CFB Borden, Ontario for 16 weeks of training in the Canadian Forces School of Administration and Logistics.
I graduated September 1990 as a MSEOP. (Mobile Support Equipment Operator) September 23, 1990 I reported to work at Field Transport, CFB Petawawa, Ontario to do what I enjoy the most in life, DRIVING.
There I lived in barracks and had many room-mates over 5 years. Those guys are named as follows: Harold James, Tom Osbourne, John Davis, Graham Boyce & Ken Ryan. I still keep in touch with a couple of these guys but not all.
In February 1991, I went to serve in the Gulf War from February to March 1991. I was a Private for this duration, which was a total of 4 years. I then met my wife, Leah. We went together for a period of 9 months and I was informed of another overseas tour which was going to last 6 months this time around, so they told us.
In October of 1992, Leah and her friend said their fairwells and I was on a bus on my way to Trenton, Ontario to catch a 707 plane which was going to take us to Ankorage, Alaska for an overnight stay. From there we flew to Korea for one night and continued on to Thailand. I took many pictures on my journey of beautiful mountains in Alaska. We arrived in Thailand and then caught a CC-130 Hercules Aircraft into Phnem Phen, Cambodia.
The area when we first arrived seemed very dirty and extremely hot. When they opened the rear of the aircraft there was the rainy season when we got there so it was raining very hard.
It was nothing near what I had expected but really did not know what to expect. We took all our kit and belongings to our living quarters, which was a cleaned out barn. In our barn there were 6 sections which consisted of Alfa, Bravo & Charlie Platoons, Senior NCO's, females & Quarter Master Stores. Our mission here was to lend a hand distributing supplies throughout the country so voting could take place to elect a new government.
We were given leave on different occasions where we could travel to different parts of the area. One place I visited was on a 12 hour pass to Thailand which was a nice place. They had everthing there from street vendors to a MacDonald's. It was the first place I had ever gotten the chance to learn how to drive a right hand drive vehicle. It was a very different experience. For example when I went to turn on the signal I turned on the windshield wipers, everything was backwards. There were five of us that got to drive motorcycles there. No helmets were necessary. They rented the motorcycles for $20 American for 2 days which was rather nice.
I got to see a Japanese War Ship in the water and we were told that this was its first time out of Japan since World War 2. The beaches were nice but we had to watch out for Jelly-fish and Sand Crabs.
Our living quarters were rather good considering the area we were in. Around our camp there was razor wire to keep looters out. On the other side of the razor wire were a few neighbours, swamp land, rice paddies, cows and in certain places hidden mines. The camp was nice, we had our own water purification unit, electricity, wet mess(bar), eating mess, weight room, bathroom, showers, laundry facilities & swimming pool.
The Mitchell Legion was kind enough to send us Kraft Dinner & Gatorade. So we had a HUGE KD party. It was kinda fun. Christmas time was a very difficult time for alot of us overseas, being away from family, friends and loved ones but it ended up being a different Christmas for all of us. We all got Christmas gifts, a Christmas party, a band from Toronto was brought over to perform for us, which was nice, and SANTA came to visit us also. Santa landed in a helicopter which was kinda funny. He had Christmas dinner with us.
In March of 1993, I returned home for two weeks leave. Alot of Jet-Lag, and intolerance to the cold weather. Before I returned back to Cambodia I proposed marriage to Leah and she said . I was overwhelmed at her response.
I went back to Cambodia and remained there until May of 1993 and returned home and it turns out it was a 7 month tour instead of 6 months. I resided in the barracks one more time for another 2 years until Leah and I got an apartment in Pembroke, Ontario just 9 days before we got married. We married June 17th, 1995 and I took Leah to Wonderland for our Honeymoon, as well as camping on our way.
We lived there until I got notice of our transfer to CFB Shilo, Manitoba. I got sent to Winnipeg at the end of April to help out with the Red River Flood of 1997. I was there for 3 weeks and while I was away Leah organized everything to do with our posting as well as our House hunting trip. It would not have been done without her. She did a great job and it was very well organized.
I returned to Pembroke in the middle of May and two weeks after I got back we left from the Ottawa Airport to go to Manitoba to look for a house. We searched for 4 days before we found the house that was right for us.
We now reside in a small town in Manitoba. It is a nice quiet area and the prices of housing were just right.
I now work at CFB Shilo, Manitoba and like it there. I have been on the road more here than my time spent in CFB Petawawa, Ontario. The base is a 45 minute drive from where we live but I don't mind the drive, it is nice. Except for the deer, this area is full of them. It is nothing for me to drive to work in the morning and see tons of deer on my way there. It is just amazing!
Well I hope you have enjoyed what I have so far but please check back again, because now that I have gotten started I am sure there will be much, much more to come. By the way, please sign our guestbook and tell us what you think. Thanks
