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Lieutenant-Colonel James Stocker, a Torontonian who has risen up through the ranks of the regiment, is the new CO of the reconaissance unit based at Fort York Armoury. Perpetuating the 1st and 3rd Regiments of York Militia, as well as the 20th Battalion of the First World War, the Rangers are heirs to the traditions of Simcoe’s own regiment brought to York in 1793.
Lt.-Col. Stocker belongs to a new generation of Reserve unit commanders who have real experience in overseas operations, an advantage not seen since the last officers with Second World War experience retired in the 1980s. There are two kinds of COs in the Militia: those who have always been Reserve officers and have grown up inside their own units, and those whose careers were in the full-time Regular army – and who’ve accumulated a lifetime of operational experience and contacts – and who assume command of an unfamiliar regiment after transferring to the Reserve. The new CO joined the regiment when he was still at Northern Secondary. Commissioning in 2002, he did his reconnaissance training at CFB Gagetown and served as a regimental officer in the field and at the armoury. He also has the crucial experience of having served on the staffs of Canadian headquarters all the way up to National Defence HQ. During the winter of 2008-2009 he was deployed to the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, where he spent much time outside the wire. The following year he was part of the army’s task force for the G8/G20 Summits. He began 2018 as the senior Canadian liaison officer to the coalition headquarters fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Added to this operational experience is a history degree from York and qualifications from Canadian staff colleges and the British Territorial Army Command & Staff College. Lt.-Col. Stocker is still only 36. The parade on September 29 at the armoury was reveiwed by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor, who – as Simcoe’s sucessor – is also Colonel of the Regiment. The same parade installed a new Regimental Sergeant Major, the long-serving Chief Warrant Officer Chris Duncan. The outgoing Regimental Sergeant-Major is CWO Frank Atyeo, who also joined the regiment in high school. As a young trooper in 1994 he served with the chaotic United Nations operation in Bosnia, and more recently, with NATO in Kandahar as the quartermaster of an intelligence unit. He was named Best Senior Non-Commissioned Officer of the Toronto brigade in 2006 and during his career with the Rangers earned every distinction there is. His replacement, CWO Chris Duncan, has been with the regiment since 1980 and, beyond a series of domestic deployments, CWO Chris Duncan is the new has deep experience in the leading Regimental Sergeant Major. and training of recruits. Photo: Courtesy DND
Lt.-Col. James Stocker (right) greets outgoing Commanding Officer Lt.-Col. Eric Thorson at the Change of Command parade. Lt.-Col. Thorson is retiring after nearly 40 years with, among others, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and the Canadian Airborne Regiment, and service overseas in Cyprus, the Sinai, Iraq and Afghanistan. Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell looks on from the right. Photo: Officer Cadet Stephanie Robinson
Captain Stocker and his RG-31 armoured car were part of the Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Photo: Courtesy James Stocker Mail: 260 Adelaide St. E., Box 183, Toronto, M5A 1N1 e-mail: info@fortyork.ca
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