Supplied Photo/Canadian Armed Forces Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre speaks at the Change of Command ceremony on June 20 in Ottawa, where he assumed the position of commander, Military Personnel Command.
A Medicine Hat High School alumnus and one-time local cadet has been promoted to one of the top administrative posts in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Lt-Gen. Wayne Eyre, a member of the graduating class of 1984, returns from South Korea where he was the the deputy commander of United Nations Command to take over Military Personnel Command of the Canadian services.
That department oversees a wide array of human resources service for 14,000 members of the military, including recruitment, pay, benefits, career development and ongoing support.
“I am proud to take over as Commander of Military Personnel Command,” he said in a statement. “People are the military’s most important resource and I will continue to ensure that supporting our people and their families is our top priority.”
Eyre assumed command in a ceremony held Thursday in Ottawa from outgoing commander Lt-Gen. Charles Lamarre, who Eyre previously served under as a deputy commander in the department.
Eyre grew up in Wadena, Sask., before moving to Medicine Hat at age 12 with parents Don and Karen Eyre. The couple managed the Satellite Hotel in the early 1980s while Don also worked as a real estate agent.
The News archives note that Wayne Eyre was part of the graduating class at Hat High in 1984 and that August was accepted to the officers military training program.
A biography from the department of National Defence states he was commissioned in 1988 and joined the Princess Patricia’s. He held operational commands in Cyprus, Croatia and Bosnia. He was an senior official in the Afghan National Security Force training program. Domestically, Eyre also commanded several emergency response operations, including the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire evacuation.
