Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, LCol Scott Wilson joined the Canadian Forces in 1987, as an Army Signals Officer. After completing university and initial officer training, he served in a variety of rewarding Army and joint assignments throughout Canada and the United States.
During his first three tours as a junior officer, LCol Wilson enjoyed the privilege and pleasure of commanding troops, realizing early its all about the people and not the equipment. His first two years of command within 1 Canadian Division Headquarters and Signal Regiment in Kingston, Ontario found him on the hilltops of Wainwright, Alberta at RENDEZ-VOUS (RV) ’92. He was Regimental Signal Officer of 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in Chilliwack, British Columbia for three years including a short four-month stint (and bachelor party) in Dundurn, Saskatchewan. This was followed by a year each of Advance Party Officer, then Operations Officer and finally Deputy Commanding Officer of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signal Squadron in Edmonton, Alberta. Domestic operational deployments for the Headquarters were the flavour of the day during those busy times, notably deploying the unit to OP ASSISTANCE (Winnipeg Floods 1997) and later OP RECUPERATION (Ontario Ice Storms 1998). Posted to Ottawa in 1999, he served one year less-a-day as a Fielding Officer in the Director Land Command Systems Project Management, coordinating the delivery of new tactical radio systems (IRIS) to the Army.
Promoted to Major in 2000, LCol Wilson was posted to the Canadian Forces Information Operations Group and seconded to the NDHQ Joint Staff as the Senior Staff Officer for Information Protection (J6IO/IP), supporting Canadian Forces international and domestic operations.
LCol Wilson began a three-year tour in 2002, with the United States Strategic Command in Arlington, VA. He served as one of two foreign national exchange officers in the Command Center and Operations Directorate of the Joint Task Force – Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO), earning a US Joint Service Commendation Medal in the process.
From 2005-2008, LCol Wilson commanded 2 Electronic Warfare (EW) Squadron in Kingston, Ontario during a period of extraordinary growth, transformation and unprecedented operational tempo. This small unit of only a few hundred personnel force-generated successive back-to-back rotations of EW Troops to OP ATHENA (initially in Kabul and then Kandahar Province). Their success in force protection there remains a source of great pride for the entire team and was ultimately recognized in 2009, with a Canadian Forces Unit Commendation.
Following a year of full-time French language studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, he was promoted to his present rank in 2009. He continued at the College serving for another two years as Directing Staff and Director of Staff of the Department of Applied Military Science (AMS), mentoring and instructing students of the Land Force Technical Staff Programme (LFTSP) and the Army Technical Warrant Officers’ Programme (ATWOP).
From 2011 to 2015, LCol Wilson lead a multi-disciplinary team of military experts and defense scientists of the Canadian Army Land Warfare Centre in concept-based design work to reduce organizational risk. This, at times, soul-sucking work, centered around future command and control requirements, integration of emerging intelligence capabilities and the contested cyber-electromagnetic battlespace in future land operations.
By 2015, LCol Wilson was looking forward to getting back from the future to concentrate on the here and now. He spent the next three years as the G8, and later the G1 and Commanding Officer of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre Headquarters.
Finally, after 13 years straight in Kingston as a senior officer, the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals figured he must know “all of the tricks” so he was selected to be a section head within Director Military Careers and he was relocated to Ottawa, Ontario for what would be his final posting in uniform. From 2018, to his planned release from the Canadian Armed Forces in 2023, he has proudly guided and participated in the career management of officers (and their associated non-commissioned member trades) of the Canadian Army Signals, the Royal Canadian Air Force Communications and Electronics, and Canadian Forces Intelligence, Military Police and Public Affairs Officer occupations.
LCol Wilson is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, Class of ’91, with a Baccalaureate in Electrical Engineering and he is currently a third of the way towards completing the requirements for a Masters in Business Administration.
LCol Wilson is married to the lovely Dr. Joslyn Wilson. They have built their “forever home” in Stittsville, Ontario where they raise their daughter Lexie with two faithful corgis, Willow and Indie, underfoot. His two other children, Hunter and Spencer, have left the nest and are adulting in Kingston and Ottawa respectively. While he hopes to find new challenges in the Public Service in the near future, hopefully retirement from uniformed service will give him more time to maintain his 320 gallons of saltwater fish and coral in his living room and perhaps get back to scuba diving with more frequency.
There will be a Depart with Dignity of LCol Wilson’s career held at 3 Brewers 565 Kanata Avenue, Ottawa, ON, 13 Oct 2023 at 1200h. Please RSVP for the DWD and send any congratulatory messages, pictures, and amusing anecdotes to LCol Francois Laroche [email protected] .