Duty Calls

Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Gilles Grégoire named next Canadian Forces Chief Warrant Officer

Julia Lennips August 2, 2020

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Chief Petty Officer 1st Class (CPO1) Gilles Grégoire will be appointed the 14th Canadian Armed Forces Chief Warrant Officer (CAF CWO) this active posting season (APS).

CPO1 Gilles Grégoire will be replacing CWO Alain Guimond.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)Johnathan Vance, offered his thanks to CWO Guimond for his dedication and 38 years of service to Canada.

General Vance also congratulated CPO1 Gilles Grégoire on his appointment.

Over the course of his 30-year career, CPO1 Gilles Gregoire served aboard HMC Ships Terra Nova, Yukon Mackenzie, Annapolis, Fraser, Halifax, Ville de Quebec, St. Johns, and Toronto.

The rank insignia of the CFCWO is the coat of arms of Canada in coloured thread, surrounded by a wreath of 20 maple leaves in gold thread, worn on the lower sleeve of the service dress jacket. The cap badge is the coat of arms of Canada, in full-colour metallic thread.

As part of an in shore posting in Campbellton, N.B., he served at the Canadian Forces Naval Engineering School with duties including Halifax-Class equipment instructor and senior instructor, and Naval Weapons Training Chief.

He graduated from the Non-Commissioned Officer Executive Professional Development Program at Royal Military College of Canada in 2013, where he earned a certificate of Military Studies.

In 2014, CPO1 Grégoire was appointed Coxswain of HMCS Toronto, where he carried out his duties in support of our NATO allies as part of Operation Reassurance.

Recently, CPO1 Grégoire served as CWO for the Chief of Force Development organization in Halifax, a unit responsible for developing future capabilities required to produce strategically relevant, operationally responsive, and tactically decisive military forces.

Created in 1978, the CFCWO assists the CDS with the duties and is an advisor on issues relating to noncommissioned members.

The CFCWO holds the substantive rank of Chief Warrant Officer (Army or Air Force) or Chief Petty Officer 1st Class (Navy). The title, Canadian Forces Chief Warrant Officer, does not change when the incumbent is a Chief Petty Officer.