Jamaican Man is Canada’s First Black Naval Commander
A Jamaican-born man is now Canada’s first Black Naval Commander.
Lieutenant Commander Paul Smith was born in Lionel Town, Jamaica and migrated to Canada with his parents at the tender age of six.
In 1986, a high school friend informed him about a naval reserve’s summer youth employment program.
While speaking with CBC News, he stated “I really just considered it a summer job for that one summer and when the program was over … I decided I really enjoyed it”.
He was officially recognised as the first black ship’s commander in the Royal Canadian Navy over a year ago through National Defence and the Canadian Forces Directorate of History and Heritage — a place that tracks and communicates military history.
According to CBC News, Smith stated “I’ve been getting actually lots of nice emails from other black Canadian service members. I got a couple from the army, a few from the navy and some from the air force as well, either congratulatory notes or just people saying that it’s nice to see a person of colour in a command position,” said Smith.
Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Smith finished his general military training in the summer of 1987 and was then posted to HMCS Anticosti in 1993.
Smith rose up the ranks over the years, studied sociology at Dalhousie University and eventually attained his current rank in 2010.
He is married and has two sons.
We are proud of you Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Smith. 🙂
Source: CBC News
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