Wentzell, Tyler

Major Tyler Wentzell is a currently serving member of the Canadian Forces, one who hails from Nova Scotia.  He comes from a family with a military and especially a policing tradition, and as a teenager he worked on an oral history project that involved interviewing some of the same veterans that we have met here at Crestwood.  As was the case with many young men and women, 9/11 would prove to be the stimulus that led to his decision to enlist.  He went through training in different locales in Canada, and was ready to be an infantry officer.  In 2008 he was deployed to Afghanistan, where it was his task to liaise with and to support local Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban.  He also oversaw a weapons transition process during his time there, and he became a mentor officer to a reconnaissance company.  During his stay in Maiwand province, Major Wentzell got to know the local people well, and he was able to give Crestwood students great descriptions of the patrols he mounted, as well as observations of the male-female cultural differences and of the local economy, which was heavily connected to the poppy crop.  He also spoke of the intricacies of serving as part of NATO mission, and of being governed by UN Security Council mandates, with all the secondary meanings in terms of military caveats and rules of engagement.  Like so many Canadians who served on that Afghanistan mission, he returned to Canada and made adjustments to fit back in.  Major Wentzell in addition to being an infantry officer is also a lawyer and now an instructor at the Canadian Forces College (CFC) in Toronto.  He visited Crestwood students in April 2023, when he sat for this Q&A with Model UN club delegates and Politics 12 students.