By Sub-Lieutenant M.X. Déry
Dentistry and naval communications have little in common, but according to Canadian Fleet Pacific's 2017 Sailor of the Year, Leading Seaman Rosalie Houle Carrière, the experience gained from the journey is what's important.
While she has dreamed of being a dentist since she was 12, her desire to gain work experience and travel made her join the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve in 2010 as a naval communicator.
“The goal of being a dentist is in the back of my mind,” says LS Houle Carrière. “But that doesn't mean the road to getting there is a straight line.”
The 25-year-old from Trois-Rivières, Que., grew up speaking French and learned English in an immersion program, language skills she would put to use when travelling around the world in Canadian warships.
As a teenager, LS Houle Carrière joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and after high school joined Naval Reserve Division HMCS Radisson while completing her pre-university degree at Cégep de Trois-Rivières. With college complete and qualified as a naval communicator, she joined HMCS Regina on Operation ARTEMIS in 2013. The shift from her experience on Great Lakes deployments aboard HMCS Moncton, a maritime coastal defence vessel, to a Halifax-class frigate deployed on a major operation, was jarring.
“The platform is very different, the atmosphere – it's like a town floating on the water,” says LS Houle Carrière. “You might not see someone for two months; the…
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