Paul Vaillancourt was born October 21, 1938, in Dill Township, just outside of Subbury, Ontario.  Paul’s father worked for the railroad until he was injured on the job, which put the family in difficult financial circumstances.  Paul’s mother was left alone with their seven children as he underwent multiple surgeries, and the stress of that situation led her to leave – she abandoned her family to the care of a cousin.  In the end the children ended up at an orphanage and St. Joseph’s residential school; in spite of the circumstances, Paul recalled that the education he received was good, and he was able to graduate Grade 11.  Along the way Paul’s mother would at times re-enter the children’s lives, but when the time at the orphanage was over Paul and the siblings went into the care of other family members.  Paul lived with his older sisters, and through them he was able to attend Sudbury Mining and Technical School.  He moved around a fair amount during this time in his life between Quebec and Ontario, ending up in Toronto working at a lithographic plant.  It was at this time that he decided to join the Canadian Forces, along with his brother.  They joined the navy, and Paul became an armourer, while his brother went into communication.  After 2 years Paul made the decision to change service branches though, and he was accepted by the army in June 1960.  His training took him into signals and he was trained as a radio technician, though he never actually did that as the army had something different in mind for him.  Paul ended up being involved in STRAD (Signal Transmit Receive And Distribution), the first computer operated message handling system, which was installed to control the flow of traffic through the network. The system provided a much improved service to the network users until it was retired to make way for a more modern system.  Paul’s next posting was in the Far North at Alert, where he got his chance to work on radios; his posting there would be brief as family troubles brought him back to the Ottawa area.  The remainder of his 29 year career would be spent in southern Ontario, as he moved between Carp and Camp Borden, before finishing up – with a new wife and family – in Victoria, B.C.  Paul Vaillancourt was interviewed by Scott Masters at the Parkwood Veteran Centre in London, Ontario in October 2024.