Commanding Officer, 427 Special Operations Squadron, 2022 - 2024
Lieutenant-Colonel Matt Snider

Lieutenant-Colonel Matt Snider joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1998 as a reservist in 20th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery. He served as a gunner, attaining the rank of Sergeant, while attending the University of Alberta where he graduated in 2003 with a BSc in Kinesiology. In 2004, he transferred to the Air Force as a pilot.

Upon completion of training in 2008, Lieutenant-Colonel Snider was posted to 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron as a pilot on the Griffon helicopter. During this tour, he deployed multiple times with Special Operations Task Forces including to Afghanistan, North Africa, and the Caribbean as a pilot and air liaison officer.

Lieutenant-Colonel Snider was posted on exchange in 2014 to 18 Squadron, Royal Air Force, to fly the Chinook helicopter. Over the subsequent three years he supported the UK Chinook Force throughout the UK and Europe as well as a deployment as Commander of the Chinook detachment in the Falkland Islands.

In 2017, Lieutenant-Colonel Snider was posted back to 427 SOA Sqn as a Flight Commander, culminating in a deployment as Commander of a Special Operations Aviation Detachment in Iraq.

Lieutenant-Colonel Snider has served as Senior Staff Officer for Tactical Aviation and Deputy Director of Fleet Readiness at 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters. He is a graduate of the Joint Command and Staff Program and holds a Master of Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada.

Lieutenant-Colonel Snider lives in Petawawa with his wife Angela and his children Sarah and Sam.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ross Wuerth CD

Lieutenant-Colonel Ross Wuerth, of Port Elgin, Ontario served as a Pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces for more than 40 years.

He enrolled in 1978,attended Royal Roads Military College in Victoria and the Royal Military College in Kingston, graduating in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Fuels and Materials Engineering (Nuclear Option).

He earned his Pilot Wings at Portage la Prairie in 1984, then subsequently served as a tactical rotary wing aviator in support of Army operations. He amassed 4300 flying hours with several squadrons across Canada - including 403, 447, 3 CFFTS Basic Helicopter School, 427 and 440 squadrons - and flying a variety of aircraft, both helicopters and fixed-wing.

He served at 427 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Petawawa from 1999 until 2001, initially as the Deputy Commanding Officer, then as Commanding Officer of the deployed squadron (minus). He served as a peacekeeper with the Multinational Force and Observers where he flew helicopter missions in Sinai, Egypt and in Israel. He had the honour of commanding two flying squadrons, namely the Bosnia-Herzegovina Rotary Wing Aviation Unit, where the missions were flown in an operational theatre of armed conflict with the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR), then 440 Transport Squadron in Yellowknife. He also commanded the Canadian Forces Recruiting Group Headquarters in Borden.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wuerth’s most prestigious assignment was a two-year period from December 1992 until December 1994 as Aide-de-Camp to His Excellency, The Governor General of Canada, Ramon John Hnatyshyn. Perhaps he is famous for growing giant pumpkins in the Rideau Hall gardens and for resurrecting outdoor curling with The Governor General’s Curling Club.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wuerth transferred from the Regular Force to the Primary Reserve in late 2015 and was appointed the Officer-in-Charge of the Air Component Coordination Element located with Joint Task Force Central in Toronto, Ontario.

Following his release from the CAF, he was employed for more than two years as an imagery pilot for a small company based at Toronto Island, in support of various police forces for criminal surveillance and provincial ministries across Canada for wildfires management.

Lieutenant-Colonel Wuerth is married to Monique Bujold, of Elliot Lake Ontario. They reside in Barrie, Ontario. They have three daughters. The eldest graduated the Royal Military College in 2017 and is an RCAF Aerospace Engineering Officer (AERE). The other two daughters are schoolteachers in Barrie.