Commander, 22 Wing North Bay/CFB North Bay
Colonel S. A. Guilbault, CD
The son of a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Chief Warrant Officer, Colonel Shawn Guilbault grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Cold Lake, Alberta; and Ottawa, Ontario. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 2001 as a Guardsman with the Governor General’s Foot Guards and commissioned into the RCAF in 2006 as an Aerospace Control (AEC) Officer.
Following air battle management training in 2007, he was posted to 42 Radar Squadron as a Tactical Fighter Controller. In 2009, he transferred to the 552nd Air Control Wing (552 ACW) at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, in the United States. He qualified as an Air Weapons Officer and Senior Director aboard the United States Air Force E-3 airborne warning and control system (AWACS). He served as Chief of Tactics and Flight Commander at the 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron (AACS) and the 960th AACS, and he deployed with the 963rd Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron supporting Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.
In 2012, Colonel Guilbault returned to Cold Lake as an AEC Fighter Weapons Instructor Course Director at the Fighter Standards and Evaluation Team as well as battle management standards officer at the Aerospace Control Standards and Evaluation Team, 1 Canadian Air Division. Posted to the Canadian Air Defence Sector in 2014, he worked as Mission Crew Commander supporting NORAD operations at 21 Aerospace Control and Warning (AC&W) Squadron. In 2015, he assumed command of 51 AC&W Squadron, leading an outstanding team in the delivery of new battle management and air surveillance training.
Colonel Guilbault spent one year at the United Kingdom’s (U.K.’s) Joint Services Command and Staff College. In 2018, he returned to the 552 ACW as Commanding Officer of Canadian Detachment Tinker, serving as Mission Crew Commander supporting NORAD, counter-narcotics operations, and Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. Posted to Chief of Combat Systems Integration in 2021, he spent a year as Deputy Director Digital Transformation while he and his family re-learned how to ‘do winter’ properly again after four years abroad.
Promoted to his current rank in 2022, Colonel Guilbault served as Director Plans North America within the Strategic Joint Staff. On April 24, 2026, he was privileged to assume command of 22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay and the Canadian Air Defence Sector.
He holds degrees from the University of Ottawa, the University of Oklahoma, and King’s College London. Colonel Guilbault is a Fighter Weapons Instructor, a graduate of the UK’s Advanced Command and Staff Course, and he has completed Developmental Period 4 as Visiting Defence Fellow at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs. He has over 1,400 flying hours aboard the E-3 AWACS, including 65 combat and combat support missions.
Throughout his career, he has been grateful for the support of his wonderful wife and their three amazing daughters