Chris Justason is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, where he is presently a major in the Armoured Corps.  He is originally from New Brunswick, where he grew up in the Fredericton area.  His family had a military tradition, though it was almost entirely navy-connected; joining as an Armoured officer did allow Chris to wear a different black beret though!  Chris elected to join up in 2003, in the wake of 9/11 and the emerging war on terror.  He went through training, and attended the Royal Military College in Kingston, and he was subsequently assigned to Camp Petawawa; along the way he developed his specialization as an officer in armoured warfare.  His first deployment was in 2010, when he was sent to Afghanistan.  Chris served in the Kandahar region, working alongside Canada’s NATO allies to bring about a measure of stability and security in that troubled region.  Several years later he was deployed to Mali, this time as part of the United Nations contingent, where the mission parameters – security and stability – were similar.  Chris was active in important reconnaissance activities in both cases.  In both Afghanistan and Mali, Chris and the other men and women of the Canadian contingent worked hard in their roles to develop and maintain Canada’s status as a Middle Power with an important role to play on the world stage.  In 2023-24 Chris was assigned to the Canadian Forces College, where he continued his studies in military policy planning and implementation.  During that time he paid a visit to Crestwood in April 2024, where shared his story with Crestwood students.