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By Steven Fouchard, Army Public Affairs
Surrey, British Columbia — Canadian Army Reservist Sergeant Amelia Chia recently bid farewell to the fifth-graders she teaches in her civilian career.
“It's a bit emotional for me,” she said, recalling her final days at Riverdale Elementary in Surrey, British Columbia before departing for pre-deployment training.
From mid-December until July 2020, Sgt Chia will be part of Operation IMPACT (Op IMPACT), Canada's training mission in the Middle East. In the role of supply technician, she will work in Kuwait to ensure soldiers receive necessary equipment and supplies before they move on to other Op IMPACT areas of operation in Iraq, Lebanon, or Jordan.
“They get their mission-essential kit in Kuwait,” she explained. “One example would be the frag vest. They come into theatre with a green cover on their ballistic fragmentation vests and they get issued tan covers.”
Sgt Chia is a member of 39 Signal Regiment, which has four squadrons in Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, and Nanaimo British Columbia. Pre-deployment training will be her first exposure to the supply trade in several years, she noted, and she welcomes the opportunity to be in the position of student rather than teacher.
“I feel very accomplished in my civilian career but I do like being in a place where I am a learner, where I am humbled.”
Difficult as it may have been to leave her…
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