After 37 years, Major Ron Haskell retired from the army on 29 July. For the past seven years he had been serving as the Battery Commander of 64 Field Battery here in Yorkton, but his career extends much further back than that. Haskell joined the Canadian Forces on 14 April 1974 as a private with 418 (City of Edmonton) Air Reserve Squadron and served with the Air Reserve the first six years of his career. During that time, he served on the air security detail for the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and the following year with NATO in Germany as an aircraft technician with 1 Canadian Air Group during the Cold War.
At the beginning of 1980 Haskell went over to the army earning his commission 8 months later with the Royal Canadian Artillery. By this time he was also serving full time with the regular force having transferred from the reserves at the end of 1978. Haskell's regular force career saw him serve in Chilliwack, B.C., Bagotville, Que., Gagetown, N.B., Shilo, Man., St. John's, Nfld., Chatham, N.B. and Kingston, Ont. He served in both field artillery and air defence artillery units. As well Haskell served with the United Nations in Cyprus in 1982 and with the European Community Monitoring Mission in the former Yugoslavia in 1994. While serving with Headquarters 1st Canadian Division in Kingston he was selected to become an exchange officer with Headquarters 5 Panzer Division in Mainz, Germany in 1996. Haskell also served with Headquarters 1st Canadian Division during the Manitoba flood in 1997 when almost the entire Canadian army was called out to help.
In 1999 Haskell retired from the regular force and transferred back to the reserves. He then served as a part-time reservist while he pursued his second career, teaching where he is currently employed with the Good Spirit School Division. As a reservist Haskell served in four different provinces; Ontario, New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 2009 he took a break from teaching to serve an overseas tour in Afghanistan returning in July 2010. Although Haskell has left the army he will still serve the Canadian Forces in uniform as he has transferred to the Cadet Instructor Cadre and will work with cadets in Fort Qu'Appelle. As Fort Qu'Appelle is a sea cadet unit, this requires a change of uniform and when he dons his naval uniform on he will have served in all three branches of the Canadian Forces.
As a side note, while in the Air Reserve, the very first aircraft that Haskell worked on as a technician was the DHC-3 Otter. An example of this type can be found at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum located in Ottawa. Recently Haskell had the opportunity to visit the museum and was much amused to discover that the Otter at the museum was not just the same type of aircraft that he worked on, it was the same aircraft that he worked on - tail number 9408, one of five Otters that equipped his first unit. Time to retire.
