RCAF Mobile Support Equipment (MSE): A history of the trade

Mobile Support Equipment, Royal Canadian Air Force

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3585211)

MSE Op driver's competition, RCAF Station Rockcliffe, 19 Sep 1955.

Mobile Support Equipment Operators (MSE OP) operate military vehicles ranging in size from standard automobiles to snow removal equipment and all-terrain vehicles. An MSE OP carries out duties related to driving, operating and performing operator's maintenance on a variety of administrative and Standard Military Pattern (SMP) vehicles. Employment involves both static and operational tours in the air and land environment.

The author's father, Warrant Officer (Retired) Aage C. Skaarup was an MSE Op in the RCAF and CF from 1954 to 1974. He trained at St. Jean, Quebec and served at Camp Borden, Ontario, RCAF Station Trenton, Ontario, No. 3 (F) Wing, Zweibrucken, Germany from 1959-1963, CFB North Bay, Ontario, from 1963-1966, CFS Gypsumville, Manitoba, from 1966-1968, CFS Gander, Newfoundland, from 1968-1971, and CFB Chatham, New Brunswick. from 1971-1974, where he retired as a Warrant Officer in 1974. Dad passed away in 2011 and is buried near his farm in Carleton County, New Brunswick.