Corporal William Hanley from 31 Combat Engineer Regiment shares his Op UNIFIER experience

January 17, 2024 - Defence Stories

By Major Christopher Daniel, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Joint Task Force-Ukraine

“I joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) because I could never see myself in a regular nine-to-five job. I wanted a job that would bring some excitement and a new challenge every day,” said Corporal (Cpl) William Hanley, a sapper from 31 Combat Engineer Regiment (The Elgin’s) out of Waterloo, Ontario. Hanley was deployed on Operation UNIFIER Rotation 16 as part of Joint Task Force – Ukraine’s United Kingdom Training Element (UKTE).

Cpl Hanley put in a lot of hard work in his home unit to be selected for Operation UNIFIER. “Everyone wants to get on deployment so I really had to try and make myself stand out. I trained new soldiers and tried my best to do as much for the unit as I could,” he said.

So when he found out that he had been picked to go on this operation, he was very excited. “We are constantly training in Canada practicing our skills, so to be able to deploy and use the things I've learned for real is amazing.”

Cpl Hanley chose to become a combat engineer because of the wide range of expertise the trade has to offer. “We can do anything from building bridges to blowing up doors,” he said.

Combat Engineers provide the ability to live, move, and fight to friendly forces while denying the same abilities to the enemy. These capabilities include bridge building, explosive demolition, mine clearance and disposal, and much more.

“My job on this operation, along with the other members of my section, is to teach the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) soldiers how to survive in an explosive hazard environment. That includes how to escape from a minefield, extracting casualties from a minefield, as well as finding and marking booby traps,” he shared.

Cpl Hanley’s key takeaway from this deployment is that the way war is fought is changing. “We are not in the Afghanistan era anymore, so it's time to learn from the experiences of our Ukrainian colleagues.”

He said that working with the AFU has been the greatest experience of his career so far. “It’s an amazing feeling knowing that the men and women we train here will be the ones to beat the Russian invaders and restore freedom to their country. They are some of the most motivated people I have ever met, and when they leave here, they are more than ready to destroy the enemy.”

Cpl Hanley’s advice to anyone aspiring to join the CAF is to take the challenge. “Work hard and learn as much as you can. Opportunities and challenges will present themselves and you have to be ready when they do,” he said.