As he said goodbye to 19 Wing, Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Young was visibly touched when he received many thoughtful, personal gifts from wing members.Young, who has been the Wing Chief since June 2009, handed over the reigns to Chief Warrant Officer David Bolster Friday during a change of appointment ceremony.”You can really tell when someone is truly and genuinely well-liked,” Wing Commander Col. Jim Benninger noted during the ceremony.Young is headed to Ottawa to serve as chief of the Canadian Forces’ Information Management Group, and while he looks forward to his next assignment, he was sad to leave.”My heart feels heavy as I’m about to leave 19 Wing,” he said. “These past two years, I’ve had a chance to work alongside some of the best professional military and civilian employees. Our mission was not always easy to fulfill, but it is because of the 19 Wing leadership and its people that we were able to face all situations and tackle them head on.”Young expressed gratitude to the Air Force leadership for giving him the opportunity to serve 19 Wing, and he thanked many people for their friendship and support.”To you all, thank you all for your time, your support and your encouragement and your skills,” he said. Young was born in Iserlöne, West Germany. He enrolled as a cook in the Canadian Forces in June 1983.He has been deployed to the Golan Heights, to Central Africa and Syria, and he received the Order of Military Merit in 2006.”Patrick, you arrived in this position just two years ago well-equipped to succeed as Wing Chief, and you met all the challenges in a most impressive manner,” Benninger told Young.The Wing Chief has a very important role, emphasized Benninger.”The Wing Chief is the Wing Commander’s most trusted adviser,” he said. “We rely on him to take the pulse of the wing as a whole.”Benninger told members the Wing Chief is their mentor and advocate.”He leads not with an officer’s commission and he doesn’t have stripes on his shoulders, but by virtue of the respect he earns from you, this is what gives him the authority to lead,” he said.In welcoming Bolster to his new position, Benninger told him he had “every confidence” in him.”You have big shoes to fill, but I can see you have big feet,” he joked.Bolster, who was born in Guelph, Ont., and joined the Canadian Forces as a radio technician in August 1978, told the group he was “truly honoured” to be selected as 19 Wing Chief.”My thanks to Col. Benninger and the senior Air Force staff for giving me the opportunity to once again join the wonderful team at 19 Wing,” he said. “I am so proud to be included in your numbers.”Bolster thanked Young for the “excellent work” he completed during his tenure as Wing Chief and “for leaving the wing in such tremendous shape.”Bolster, who was invested as a Member of the Order of Military Merit in 2006, previously spent eight years at CFB Comox in the Wing Telecommunications and Information Services Squadron, helping to modernize 19 Wing.writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

Comox Valley Record