8058

 8058 Terry Melnyk

1969 Review

Somewhat to my surprise, I completed 37 years in the CF as an artillery officer.  Regimental duty with 3 RCHA in Shilo and Winnipeg and 5 RALC in Valcartier. A tour in Cyprus with 5 RALC and a posting as Liaison Officer with the a US Army research institution in New Jersey pretty much sum up my foreign duties.  My career as an artillery officer crested when an appointment as Battery Commander (HQ Battery with 5 RALC) was cancelled when I slipped a disk in my back for the second time and was put on extended medical category.  That, of course, eventually healed but left me with permanent nerve damage in one leg, happily with no particular mobility issues or pain.  I was by then in competition with younger, keener (and better probably) officers for the key postings and so I settled into the life as a staff officer.

I had earlier spent a number of years as a working military historian with the Directorate of History.  This was at a time before military history became a respectable thing for an army officer to do, so that probably did not help my artillery career. I took advantage of the posting to get an MA in history from Carleton and published, through DND, a small book of air force history.  One of my studies for the eventual RCAF official history was considered worthy of advance publication.  I had several years of pleasurable feedback from that little book.  I was blown out of that comfortable quasi civilian and academic existence by the Land Forces Staff College course in Kingston, which gave me a remarkable culture shock.  The CF Command and Staff course at Toronto followed a posting at NDHQ, so no culture shock that time, although I found it curious that we were still discussing at that level the employment of the recce platoon.

 I managed to spend my staff time in NDHQ and was fortunate to get nearly all interesting and challenging jobs, including a stint in the Minister's office.  As I approached retirement age, I had become one of the department's experts in the project approval process, and in conducting business planning, so when civilian positions opened up for competition I applied and became a civil servant.  Double dipping cheerfully but grumbling at the 3 weeks vacation (vice the 6 I had become used to).  I finished as section head, running the department's business planning process and managing the department's Investment Plan (which was, and I hope still is, a 20 resource allocation plan).  Interestingly, I and an artillery major created that plan, somewhat to the chagrin of the finance and force development community.  These two organizations increasingly felt investment planning was really their business (we had created it as part of the Program division), and as I approached 65 I realized I had run out of ideas and airspeed and was ready to retire.  Financially and professionally.  So I did.

  I have been happily married to Nicole for over 50 years, and counting.  Our son is a professor and research scientist in Sweden (or all places).  With his two young daughters, we are learning the challenges of long distance grand parenting.  We have become avid gardeners, some might say too avid but it gives us a lot of pleasure and gives a steady source of things to do.  We travel as much as we can.  I cross country ski in the winter and bike otherwise - 900 km last year and aiming for 1000 this year.  We just hope that we can continue to do all of the above for at least a few more years.