The Profession of Arms in Profile – The Royal Canadian Logistics Service: CWO Laurie Moore, Squadron Chief Warrant Officer, 2 Air Movements Squadron

April 12, 2021 - Defence Stories

As part of our commitment to share Defence stories beyond any particular day, The Maple Leaf will profile several women leaders across the CAF, specifically those in the Royal Canadian Logistics Service (RCLS). We will share their example, their experience and celebrate their tireless support to international and domestic operations, exercises, and the day-to-day business of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Read about others profiled in this series, including:

• Commander Selena Aral, Commanding Officer, Base Logistics HQ, CFB Halifax
• Commander Cynthia Smith – Commanding Officer, Base Logistics HQ, CFB Esquimalt
• LCol Amanda Aldous - Commanding Officer, 17 Mission Support Squadron, 17 Wing Winnipeg

CWO Laurie Moore joined the CAF as a traffic technician in 1990; while it hadn’t been one of her initial choices going into the recruiting centre, she says the “adventure and travel” led her to fall in love with the trade immediately.

“It really highlighted a lot of the work we do in terms of reaching globally,” CWO Moore says. “There was the flying aspect as the loadmaster, too; I love to travel so it seemed like a job I really wanted to do.”

Over the course of her career, CWO Moore has been responsible for personnel and cargo traffic at bases and wings across Canada. She got her fair share of the travel she had sought as a recruit.

“I was away 263 days in one year, on short taskings back to back, and I’ve been to more than 30 countries in the occupation,” she says, adding this included six rotations over the course of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. Over her career, she’s flown 1,400 hours in the CC-130 Hercules and roughly 600 in the CC-177 Globemaster; the latter is a particular point of pride for her, as her father was involved in the initial procurement study of the aircraft.

Her extensive experience as a line warrant led to CWO Moore being selected as part of an occupational analysis of traffic technicians conducted from 2015-2017 – a post that gave her the opportunity to help rewrite the book on her profession.

“It basically evaluated our entire occupation,” CWO Moore says of the study. “Going from the very basic level of what a private or an aviator does, all the way up to chief warrant officers… it was very rewarding, because we knew that we were going to be producing a much more qualified, educated, and innovative traffic tech.”

Subsequent to the analysis, CWO Moore was posted as the Traffic Tech Cadre Sergeant-Major at the Canadian Forces Logistics Training Centre at CFB Borden. This gave her the opportunity to apply her new understanding of the profession to shape a new generation of traffic technicians.

“We went from death by Powerpoint to working online, building on programs in the system that would enable traffic techs to understand things a little better,” she explains. “What we were expecting of our techs was much more in line with what they actually do in the occupation… the staff had to learn coding in order to put the curriculum online, and in doing so we learned how to better educate them by tailoring it to each student that was learning instead of a canned training environment. It was very interesting, very rewarding.”

CWO Moore notes one of the biggest improvements from the time she received her training was giving the junior ranks a greater understanding of why things are done a certain way – context that benefits all ranks of the logistics service.

“When we look at a global picture of what the CAF does, we’re not just shipping a box from one place to another, that piece of materiel is going to support something much bigger than we are.” CWO Moore notes. “Having that teamwork and understanding of the global participation of each member of the CAF is essential, I think, for us to function. And when you can start building those relationships and that teamwork at the young private age and building it up, introducing the onwards effect of what we’re doing here helps us keep that sense of purpose… everybody influences somebody else, especially in the logistics world. We’re in every unit across Canada, and we have an impact on every exercise and deployment across Canada and the world.”

When asked about her perspective on the new generation of logisticians, CWO Moore is very optimistic.

“They’re smart,” she says immediately. “One of the benefits to being a CSM in the traffic cadre is that every student that came through wrote a biography. And when you’re reading biographies on people that just joined, the life experiences they’ve already had – experience working for (NGOs), champions in different sports, we have people that worked for global logistics chains – people have a lot of education and experience. It’s phenomenal; what they know and understand is amazing.”

CWO Moore also notes that her experience as a woman in the CAF has also improved over her 30 years of service.

“When I first joined, the attitude was that women didn’t belong in the CAF,” she says. “I remember when I was in Winnipeg, we were out loading an aircraft, and my master corporal and my sergeant were saying, you know, women didn’t belong in the military or in our occupation. But that particular aircraft, that particular load, it was the women who were able to get that load on the plane, because of our size and our abilities. It’s not just about brawn or strength, there’s a place for everyone. And I’ve seen along the way, as I’ve progressed through my 30 years, the acceptance that we have… there’s more change still needed, but there’s been a ton of change.”