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Col. Ron Walker takes over as commanding officer of 15 Wing Change of Command Ceremony sees Walker take over from former 15 Wing commander Col. Denis OâReilly Randy Palmer - Moose Jaw Express
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Col. Ron Walker is officially the new commander of 15 Wing Moose Jaw. Walker, 51, became the 27th commander of the local Canadian Forces base on Friday afternoon during the official Change of Command ceremony, taking over from outgoing commander Col. Denis OâReilly. It was under windy conditions and warm and cloudy skies that Walker joined OâReilly and Brig.-Gen. Mario Leblanc â commander of 2 Canadian Air Division â for the official hand-over, which included a wide variety of local dignitaries along with Lt. Gov. Russ Mirasty taking part in one of his first major events since being named to the position a little over a month ago. âI left in 1996 after I was a flying instructor here and I havenât been back very often since, but one of my daughters was born here in 1994 and for us itâs like a home away from home almost,â Walker said during a post-ceremony reception. âTo come back here and be in charge of the Wing and flying training and nurturing these new students is great and itâs an opportunity Iâm really looking forward to.â Born in Windsor, N.S. in 1958, Walker joined the military in 1989 and received his pilot wings in 1993, after which he was posted to 2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School at CFB Moose Jaw, where he was an instructor on the CT-114 Tutor jet. A long and distinguished career followed, including his most recent posting at 2 Canadian Air Division as the director of air force training. That makes him uniquely qualified for the job of 15 Wing commander in the assessment of Brig.-Gen. Leblanc. âHeâs very familiar with all the aspects and many of the challenges heâll face here,â Leblanc said. âThere are many ideas, and Iâm sure over the next few weeks heâll
Col. Denis OâReilly (right) hands off the 15 Wing pennant to Brig.-Gen. Leblanc as Col. Ron Walker looks on. look at which ones he can chew on and work from there⌠Every time you take command, itâs a great day and kind of an achievement in a military career. Itâs very gratifying, and heâs coming in now with two or three years ahead of him; that time will fly by pretty quickly so if he has big ideas he has to start on them right away. âBut heâs coming in energized and thatâs why we change people every two or three years. We need to have fresh ideas and have people energized to be able to deal with different aspect of command.â On that note, the day was also bittersweet as the Wing said farewell to OâReilly, a Moose Jaw native and commander of 15 Wing since 2016. In addition to leading his final march-past during the ceremony, OâReilly was also presented with a memorial collage by CWO Marlene Shillingford and was named an honorary member of the Snowbirds for life by Snowbirds commander Mike French. OâReilly even concluded the event by join-
ing his wife of 22 years and their seven children in a humorous mock Snowbirds fly-past using the wooden models seen in local parades in recent years. âIâve worked with Col OâReilly for the last year and heâs very devoted to the mission and everything that was said on parade is very accurate, both his and his family are very involved in the community and have been extremely important to the growth and development of 15 Wing in their time here.â Walker looks forward to officially beginning his new role and the work ahead. âI think the most exciting thing for me is change,â he said. âWe have a lot of things coming forward; weâre really good at what we do here in applying change; itâs going to be nice to see the future and what that program will become⌠weâll be looking at any positive changes that can be made, where we can increase our flying here and increase our productivity.â
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