Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 65 continued ... Corporal (Ret’d) Kate MacEachern was not your average Antigonish, Nova Scotia teenage girl. She and her friend Nikola were already contemplating joining the army in high school. “As a little child, I wanted to join. If you go back 35 or 40 years, it was really not traditional for a girl to want to join the army”. She enrolled at age 24, after attending trade school and doing a couple of other things. “Life happened,” says Kate. Her son was born a mere 11 months before her initial training began. When asked about a memorable moment early on in her military career, Kate says: “Being a single mom with a 1-year old baby when you’re competing against every other person which primarily are men, mostly 18-year olds, the whole thing was memorable!” She successfully completed her basic training in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec and her trades training as an armoured vehicle operator at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Gagetown, New Brunswick. She was then assigned with the Strathcona Mounted Troops in Edmonton, Alberta. Kate was thrilled that her primary job would be to ride horses, participating in cavalry drills and training. Being audacious and bold is something that Kate MacEachern strived for from a very young age. When she enrolled to serve her country in 2005, it had been brewing in her mind since she was a little girl. When she decided to walk decked in full uniform to raise money to help struggling Veterans, no one had done it before. This is her story of determination and resilience. Cpl (Ret’d) Kate MacEachern Antigonish, Nova Scotia
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