Commanding Officer

 Commander Steven Waddell

Commander Steven Waddell, Commanding Officer, HMCS FREDERICTON

   Commander (Cdr) Steven Waddell was raised in Temagami, Northern Ontario and joined the Navy in 1990.  Following training in Esquimalt, he was posted to HMCS GATINEAU in 1992 and deployed with a NATO task force to the Adriatic Sea in the early days of the Yugoslav civil war.  In 1993, he completed the Destroyer Navigating Officer course and navigated HMCS RESTIGOUCHE for a short period before joining the commissioning crew of HMCS CALGARY in 1994.  He circumnavigated the globe in 1995 as CALGARY’s Navigating Officer, deploying to the coastlines of both Iraq and the former Yugoslavia in order to enforce UN sanctions against those countries.

   Following his tour as Navigating Officer, in 1996 Cdr Waddell was posted to VENTURE, the Naval Officer Training Centre, where he instructed junior officers in navigation and seamanship.  In 1998, Cdr Waddell was selected for Operations Room Officer training, and in 1999 he was posted to HMCS REGINA as Weapons Officer.  In REGINA, he deployed to the Arabian Gulf with the USS CONSTELLATION Carrier Battle Group, also serving as staff liaison officer on board the aircraft carrier.

   In 2001, Cdr Waddell was selected for academic training to complete his university degree, and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2003 with a BA in Geography.  For his ‘summer break’ in 2002, he was called upon to serve as Combat Officer on board HMCS ALGONQUIN, the Canadian Task Group Flagship deployed to South West Asia during Operation Apollo, Canada’s contribution to the campaign against terrorism.

   Cdr Waddell joined the staff of Sea Training Pacific in 2003, serving as Operations Officer for over a year before being appointed Executive Officer of HMCS WINNIPEG in 2004.  In that capacity he once again deployed to South West Asia and the Arabian Sea, conducting operations against international terrorism.

   In 2006 Cdr Waddell was selected to represent Canada at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom, where he earned his Master’s Degree in Defence Studies through King’s College London.  He returned to Canada in 2007 for french language training and was subsequently appointed command of HMCS CHARLOTTETOWN in June 2008.  Following a successful Op Connection deployment to the Great Lakes and other Task Group exercises, in January 2009 Cdr Waddell was afforded the privilege of another command in HMCS FREDERICTON.

   Cdr Waddell lives near Halifax with his wife Shauna and their two children Nathaniel and Rebekah.