MWO William (Bill) Gass will retire on 01 August 2022 after more than 35 years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). MWO Gass started his journey with 2550 Cherry Mountain Armoured Cadet Core out of Harvey / McAdam NB. Attending Camp Argonaut in the summers of 1985 for the Cadet Leader course and in 1986 for the Cadet Leader Instructor course.

After graduation from High School he joined the Reg Force by taking the early train ride from his hometown of McAdam to Saint John NB where he signed up in December 1986. Upon completion of Basic Training in March 87 he attended CFSCE, CFB Kingston for his POET and trades training as a Radio Technician.

His first posting was to Maintenance Company, CFB Gagetown where he was promoted Cpl in 1990. After getting tired of fixing RT-524’s then Cpl Gass accepted a posting to Naval Radio Station Newport Corner, Nova Scotia, where he took on the challenge of maintaining long range HF Transmitters. All good things have to come to an end and in 1997 he was posted to 1 RCR, 2 CMBG Petawawa. High points from this posting included a tour to Bosnia-Herzegovina and a promotion to MCpl.

In 2001 the east called again, MCpl Gass was posted back to Maintenance Company in Gagetown for a second time, as IC Tac Section in the L33 Tech Shop. Having only worked on radio’s for his entire career someone thought it would be a good idea in 2006 to promote him to Sgt and post him to the Artillery School as a Radar Systems Instructor with Maintenance Training Battery. Instructing on how to repair radar systems turned out to be some of the most rewarding work in his career. So it was a natural progression in 2011 when promoted to WO that he was moved just down the hall to the standards cell.

In 2015 computer screens started flashing red and someone at the career shop noticed that WO Gass had been in Gagetown for 14 years, far too long according to the CM of the day. So in the summer of 2015 WO Gass went on IR to Ottawa and took on the challenge of Tech Services Troop WO at Support Sqn, CFS Leitrim. This turned out to be the shortest posting of WO Gass career at just over 10 months. Now I know you’re thinking that he was probably fired but in fact he was promoted to his current rank of MWO and posted to the Defense Crypto Modernization Project. After two years trapped in a cubicle at the Woodline building he returned to CFS Leitrim as the Support Sqn Operations Troop Comd where he remained until APS 2019. His final posting brought him back to Gagetown as the Foreman of Signals at 5 CDSG Signal Sqn.

MWO Gass will retire on 01 August and has accepted a position from Valcom as a Project Manager, keeping him within the Sig Sqn fold. He and his wife Rosalie will be staying in the area and plan to enjoy their Cottage at Oromocto Lake with their daughters Kendra, Kylie and Kelby and their spouses. In retirement he plans to enjoy his hobbies of hunting and fishing as well.