37 Service Battalion

37 Service Battalion was organized as a unit of the Canadian Armed Forces on 30 March 2012. The unit is an amalgamation of the former 31 (Saint John) Service Battalion, located in Saint John, NB, and the former 36 (Newfoundland) Service Battalion, located in St. John’s, NL.

31 (Saint John) Service Battalion was formed in 1968 and contained elements of the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (112 Company RCASC), the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (4 Company RCAMC), the Royal Canadian Army Dental Corps (RCADC), the Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps (RCAPC), the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps (RCOC), the Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers (RCEME), the Canadian Provost Corps (C Pro C) and the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) that were located in Saint John at that time. At the time of the Battalion’s inception, it was named the Saint John Service Battalion. In 1973 the Battalion’s name was changed to 3 (Saint John) Service Battalion. The unit’s first Commanding Officer was Lieutenant-Colonel Ron Doucet and Lieutenant-Colonel David Morgan was the last.

The Battalion provided personnel to deployments in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cyprus, Darfur, the Golan Heights, Iran, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and the Former Yugoslavia. Battalion soldiers provided assistance following the Ice Storm of 1998, the crash of Swissair Flight 111 in 1998 and in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor in 2010.

On 30 March 2012, 31 (Saint John) Service Battalion ceased to exist as an independent unit and became 31 Forward Support Group of 37 Service Battalion.

36 (Newfoundland) Service Battalion was formed in June 1968. The unit was initially designated Newfoundland Militia Service Battalion, being redesignated to the aforementioned title in August 1975. The first members of the unit were members of The Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were selected and recruited to join the unit in various Combat Service Support trades. The first Commanding Officer was Lieutenant-Colonel Alex Cowan, who rose to be the Commander of the Newfoundland Militia District and the last was Lieutenant-Colonel Christiaan Meulenkamp.

The unit headquarters was initially located on the upper floor, south wing of Building 312 on Fort Pepperrell (Canadian Forces Station St. John’s). The first location of the Transport, Maintenance and Supply Company operations was in the compound of Building 907, on the south east corner of Fort Pepperrell. Initially, Administration Company of the unit was located in the central and western areas of the island of Newfoundland with personnel and equipment in Grand Falls, Corner Brook and Stephenville, co-located with elements of The Royal Newfoundland Regiment in those locations.

On 30 March 2012, 36 (Newfoundland) Service Battalion ceased to exist as an independent unit and became 36 Forward Support Group of 37 Service Battalion.

In 2010, as a result of direction that each of the ten Army Reserve Brigade Groups were to have only one service battalion, rather than the multiple services battalions that existed in most of the brigades, 31 and 36 Service Battalions began a transition process that saw them eventually amalgamated to form the new 37 Service Battalion, which was organized on 30 March 2012.