{"id":1566,"date":"2012-07-13T22:11:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T04:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2012-07-13T22:12:02","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T04:12:02","slug":"a-rare-milestone-more-than-40-years-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1566","title":{"rendered":"A rare milestone: more than 40 years of service"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rare milestone: more than 40 years of service<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
MWO Russ Morphy, currently serving with 408 Squadron, has served more than 40 years in the Canadian Forces. Credit: Capt Rodney Dietzmann.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 7, 2012<\/p>\n

By Captain Rodney Dietzmann<\/div>\n
\n

Any way you look at it, a 40-year commitment to anything takes a lot of dedication. It\u2019s certainly true when measured in terms of a military career.<\/p>\n

It was April 19, 1972 in Regina, Sask., when an 18-year-old Russ Morphy enrolled to the Regular Force of the Canadian Forces as a supply technician. This was after already serving three years (1969 \u2013 1972) as a reservist with 105th Artillery Battery in Yorkton, Sask. Although he also applied to the RCMP, Master Warrant Officer Morphy ended up deciding on a career with the CF.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in joining,\u201d said MWO Morphy. \u201cI was an air cadet from 1966 to 1969 \u2013 my [commanding officer] was a Second World War Lancaster pilot \u2013 then [I] applied to join the RCMP and the armed forces. The RCMP said that I had to wait up to one year and, of course, the military said \u2018come on in\u2019. With that, I planned to serve 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

MWO Morphy continued a long tradition of military service in his family.\u00a0 \u201cMy grandfather was a First World War vet and was wounded in Vimy Ridge. My father served in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his basic training and trades training, his first posting took him to 1 Service Battalion and the base supply section at Canadian Forces Base Calgary, Alta., until 1977. After postings sent him to Cold Lake, Alta., Ottawa, Portage La Prairie and Shilo, Man., he was posted to Edmonton, Alta., in 1996 where he was promoted to his current rank. He ended his Regular Force career in 2003, with a four-year posting to Cold Lake as the material control officer. He also had a six-month tour to the Golan Heights in 1976.<\/p>\n

An illustrious career such as MWO Morphy\u2019s does not come without its challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being away from the Army environment since 1977, it was challenging to come back to it some 19 years later,\u201d MWO Morphy pointed out. He was clearly up to the challenge, though, since he was soon promoted to master warrant officer.<\/p>\n

MWO Morphy often reflects on his many years of service with some surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I look back over my career, some days it feels like I just joined and it is hard to believe that 40 years have gone by.\u201d But he said he has great memories of all his years of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people I have worked with over the years, and the various parts of Canada my family and I were privileged to enjoy, have made for the best memories. If I was asked, I\u2019d do it all over again \u2013 no question.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of the Air Reserve since 2003 at 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron (based in Edmonton, Alta., but under the command of 1 Wing Kingston, Ont.) MWO Morphy is finishing his career serving as a full-time reservist. He plans to retire on his 60th birthday \u2013 June 3, 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rare milestone: more than 40 years of service June 7, 2012 By Captain Rodney Dietzmann Any way you look at it, a 40-year commitment to anything takes a lot of dedication. It\u2019s certainly true when measured in terms of a military career. It was April 19, 1972 in Regina, Sask., when an 18-year-old Russ Morphy enrolled to the Regular Force of the Canadian Forces as a supply technician. This was after already serving three years (1969 \u2013 1972) as a reservist with 105th Artillery Battery in Yorkton, Sask. Although…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-408-squadron-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1569,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1566\/revisions\/1569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}