Meet Warrior Warrant Officer Rick Tourigny, CD

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Vegreville resident Rick Tourigny is a retired veteran from the Canadian Armed Forces.

Warrant Officer Tournigy joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989 because he wanted to do something worthwhile, travel the world, and serve his country.

He took basic training at Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, and continued to Wainwright.

Tournigy served all over Canada and the world.

He started off as a normal, front-line soldier, and then was promoted to train guys on different courses, weapons systems, vehicles, cyber operations, and basic training.

Tournigy served two tours in an Afghanistan mission.

During his valuable experiences while serving, Tourigny shared that he saw both the worst and the best of people. “For example, in Afghanistan, the Insurgent Forces were using kids to set up the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and then they were caught, and the kids were arrested for working for the insurgents.

The good I saw was traveling around the world and realizing that most people, even the Afghans, just want peace,” Tourigny explained.

Tourigny went on to say the challenges were taking courses and trying to learn the basic language. They had interpreters sometimes.

He retired in 2014, after serving in the war in Afghanistan, because he had 12 different surgeries on his knees in his 25-year career. Tourigny expressed that he received a good pension for the disability from the CAF. But he would not recommend that other people join the CAF because, sadly, it has changed a lot since he was there. The main thing is the training, discipline is not the same, and the Government doesn't make it easy on members or veterans, too much Red Tape.

Tourigny added that he believes wars could only be prevented by not having world governments. “We will never have peace because people are greedy. Wars are caused by wanting minerals and land, or not agreeing on religion or politics.”