Haire takes command
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/06/2016 (3576 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CFB SHILO — After three years as commanding officer of the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, Lt.-Col. Stewart Taylor passed the reins to a new leader during a ceremony at CFB Shilo on Wednesday.
Family members, soldiers and senior officers attended the parade designating Lt.-Col. Stephen Haire as the new CO of the Canadian military’s oldest regiment.
Haire comes to Shilo from his most recent position as the chief of staff with the Canadian Forces College in Toronto and said he is most looking forward to working with soldiers again.
“We had some soldiers, but nothing to this magnitude,” Haire said of the roughly 500 1RCHA troops he will be in charge of for the next two years.
The new CO has a broad background and has served as an artillery officer at CFB Petawawa in Ontario and CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. Haire has also gone on operational tours in Bosnia, Haiti and Afghanistan, and he said those experiences will help inform how he runs the regiment.
“Afghanistan taught us so much about how to move and survive on the battlefield … so we’ll make sure that those lessons are incorporated into our training as we move forward,” he said.
Haire is taking over while 1RCHA is in the “high readiness” phase of the army’s managed readiness cycle — which translates into a lot of artillery training exercises and administration work.
“Our job is to wait and, when there’s a mission, be ready to go,” he said. “The year after that, we have to support the other people who are going out the door on operations.”
Haire is originally from Mount Pearl, N.L., and this tour is his second time in Manitoba.
“My first time here was on an exercise in May of 2004 and woke up in the field to about eight inches of snow — so I know the weather in Manitoba can be a little bit different,” he said.
During his parade address, Taylor lauded the 1RCHA for its accomplishments during his tenure — including a deployment to Afghanistan and disaster relief missions in various locations across Canada.
“It has been a tremendous honour and privileged to have soldiered with you — you’ve taught me so much that I’ve become a better version of myself,” Taylor said. “CFB Shilo has a real sense of community and camaraderie — one which brings out the true spirit of the slogan ‘Friendly Manitoba.’”
The change of command ceremony followed all the usual rhythms until the outgoing CO stood for his final regimental salute and The Royal Canadian Artillery Band broke into an instrumental version of rapper Flo Rida’s song “My House.”
Taylor is moving on to a position with the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Group in Ottawa.
» ewasney@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @evawasney