Reflections on life in the Airforce lecture
Nipissing University welcomes Major Bernard, "Tony" Matheson of 22 Wing North Bay for a special lecture, titled Life in the Royal Canadian Airforce, on Tuesday November 8, from 7 – 9 p.m. in room A226.
Drawing on his thirty years of experience in the RCAF, Major Matheson will reflect on the Air Force as well as the theme of Veteran's Week and Remembrance Day.
This event is free of charge and all are welcome. Register is required as seating is limited.Please register here before Tuesday November 8.
Major Matheson was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick and graduated with a diploma in Business Administration from Centennial College, Toronto in 1983. He enrolled in the Canadian Forces out of Toronto in March of 1986. Soon after graduating Air Weapons Controller training in North Bay in 1987 he was posted to the Aeronautical Engineering Test Establishment at CFB Cold Lake in 1988 as a Mission Controller at the Primrose Lake Evaluation Range. In 1990 he was posted to 410 Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron as an Air Weapons Controller liaison officer, while there he managed to rack up 98 flights and 118 hours of back seat time in the CF-18. After leaving Cold Lake he spent almost all of the last 25 years of his career working within NORAD and the air defence community. He successfully completed a tour in the Space community at (Eldorado AFS, Texas) from 1992 to 1995 as a Mission Commander at a Missile Warning Squadron. In 1995 he started his second of four operational postings to the Canadian Air Defence Sector (CFB North Bay) 1995 to 2000 in the Underground Complex and again from 2005 to 2009 (finally above ground) as a Mission Crew Commander and as the 21 Aerospace Control & Warning Squadron Deputy Operations Officer.
His current posting to North Bay since 2013 has him employed as the Wing Operations Plans Officer. Between postings to North Bay he was posted to Alaska (Elmendorf AFB) in 2000 where he was employed as a Mission Crew Commander until 2002 and then as the Executive Officer for the Deputy Commander Alaska NORAD Region from 2002 to 2005 as well as being the Administration Officer for the entire Canadian Component Elmendorf. He followed his Alaska tour with his first of two tours at the Continental USA (Tyndall AFB) NORAD Region 2005-2009 and 2013-2015. He initially worked as a tester and then as the Deputy Operations Officer for the 101 Air Communications Squadron System Service Facility located at Tyndall, AFB in Panama City Florida.
Throughout his career he has gained valuable operational experience while working Temporary Duty assignments at the Combined Airspace Operations Centre in Vicenza, Italy, in 1998 and again 1999 in support of Operations’ Deliberate Forge and Deliberate Guard respectively enforcing the no-fly zones over Bosnia-Herzegovina. In July of 2010 he had the opportunity to deploy to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, to work as the Canadian Liaison Officer at the Combined Air Operations Centre. More recently, in 2011 he completed a six and a half month Tour to Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan as the Base Operations Centre Director during the war in Afghanistan. Major Matheson earned the Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation for his efforts while deployed to Afghanistan.