Our Conversation with Sandra Pinard

Military Family Life

In this episode we talk about all things deployment with our guest Sandra Pinard.
Topics include: what are the things families can do to prepare for a deployment, some suggestions for items to include in a morale mail package and tips for re-integration.
We also have an interesting discussion about the differences between Army and Navy deployments.
About our guest:

Sandra Pinard has been associated with the Military for her entire life so the answer to the question “So where are you from?” is more complicated.

Sandra was Born in Halifax NS, and has lived in Shearwater NS, Lawrencetown NS, Jacksonville Florida USA, and Victoria BC -- all before graduating from High School.

During university at UVIC she met her husband who is a member of the Canadian Navy and who has kept their home solidly on the west coast.

Sandra has had a number of roles under the heading of military family.

Her father, brother and spouse are all currently serving or retired CAF members. And she herself served 23 years in the Air Force Reserves.

Sandra has worked with Military family services for about 2 years and is currently the Virtual MFRC Program Manager. Before that that, she spent 17 years at the Esquimalt MFRC as the Deployment Coordinator.

Living the military lifestyle and supporting others in our military community Sandra truly understands how important networking, making and maintaining community connections and volunteering can be. She is always happy to “talk shop”, lend an empathetic ear, and offer tips and support to anyone navigating the obstacles of military family life.
Contact us:
We would love to hear from you. If you are a Military Family Member that wants to share your experiences and lessons learned, email us at [e-mail]