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What a year it has been. Reflecting on everything that has happened really makes me think about the busy lives we all live.

This year started off with lots of snow and lots of work. Many of the soldiers in my shop prepared for a tour in Afghanistan, so we were swamped with work with so many people off the floor on training.

Multiple exercises and the floods in Manitoba took many soldiers away from home for over nine months straight, and with all that man power gone, well, the mass amounts of broken vehicles coming from exercises and the operations had us working over time.

But eventually things calmed down. Then I got married in the summer to a wonderful woman. The wedding was wonderful. Many friends and family showed up. We got so many gifts we had to move into a bigger apartment. I would like to put out a thanks right now to everyone who supported us at the wedding and helped us get started with our life.

Shortly before the wedding, at the bachelor party, we were paint balling and I went for a slide and caught a stick, bending my ankle under me. This resulted in a broken ankle. I really didn’t want to wear my big moon boot – given to me by the doctors – while walking down the isle, so I wrapped my ankle up real tight and stuffed my swollen ankle into my parade boots. Everyone was surprised I was walking as well as I did. I did limp a lot and by the end of the night by ankle had swollen up a lot more.

After our nice wedding and reception, we settled down into our new home in September. In October I left for CFB Cold Lake. There I received OJT training on Aircraft Maintenance Support Equipment (AMSE). I also got to work out in a shop by the bombing range. We were told we could not do P.T outside due to bears.

A Buddy of mine went hunting and got his first buck. The Antlers were scored at 405 points. Apparently the record is 415! Not bad for his first deer. We were quite impressed. He gave me a few pounds of meat. He got about 80lbs of his buck. I have skinned a few dear now, and I know the average is about 30lbs to 40lbs of meat. Nice job!

Up in Cold Lake, my buddies and I also experienced a very sad time. As we came back to base from the weekend – me driving home on the weekends to see the wife our buddy “Z” pulled us into his room. I first saw a bunch of crime scene tape on “HB’s” door. I assumed he was going to talk to us about a bunch of shit the boys got into. But the news was far worse. On November 13th, 2011, HB passed away, resulting from suicide.

We all took it pretty hard. The worst part, trying to understand why. Nobody really will know why, we only can come up with our own theories to make sense of it. The next couple of weeks were tough. I staff really helped us get through it though. We had a really nice memorial service for him, and a bunch of guys were sent to Ontario to be Pallbearers.

The beginning of December saw us back in Edmonton. We are now getting ready for the Christmas Holidays where we will have 3 weeks off. We had our Soldiers Dinner on the 8th, and were lucky enough to get the following Friday off, leading in this weekend. Now I have one more week at work, then I get the next 3 weeks off.

I hope you all had a good year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

On November 13th 2011, Craftsman Matthew Hunter-Brown passed away. I met this amazing person sometime in September, but never really got to know him until the beginning of October when HB – as I came to know him – and some other Craftsman, including myself, where sent up to CFB Cold Lake on a OJT rotation to practice our skills as Vehicle Technicians.

Over the next month and a half I came to know HB as a joyful fellow. He made us laugh with his witty comments, and lightened our day when he would walk into the shop early in the morning with a smile on his face. The rest of us would stare at the guy with disbelief at how he could be so happy in the morning.

HB was truly a friend to us all. Not having him around on the shop floor really puts a damper in the day, and brings a realization that life is fragile and we should not take it lightly.

Rest in Peace HB wherever you are. I hope you can party it up until your friends join you.