Chief Budden blazes a trail to retirement

Chief Petty Officer 1st Class (CPO1) Stan Budden

Peter Mallett, 
Contributor 

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When Naval Fleet School (Pacific) Chief Petty Officer 1^st Class (CPO1) Stan Budden reflects on his 31.5-year naval career, two great lessons learned come to mind.

“Firstly, a career in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) represents a lifetime of service to others so it’s not just a job but a lifestyle,” says CPO1 Budden. “Secondly, people are our greatest resource, and every leader’s first obligation is the care and development of the personnel they are responsible for.”

It’s a simple, to-the-point diagnostic of Navy life and the human condition coming from a man who spent many of his days working on a warship and fully focused on the workings of its engines, power generation and propulsion systems.

A Marine Engineer by trade, the 51-year-old married father of three from St. John’s, Nfld., says the final posting of his career with the teaching arm of the fleet was one of his favorites because it reinforced those lessons. Joining the Fleet School was where he could influence large numbers of tomorrow’s sailors in the classroom.

“Part of me loved being the person on ships doing the business and I thought I didn’t want to be at [Fleet] School,” said CPO1 Budden. “But now I’ve been here for some time and seen the incredible work they do and now my only wish is that I was exposed to it earlier.”

His last posting was also where CPO1 Budden fully realized the training system’s importance in sustaining a strong, vibrant, world class maritime force and generating the  next generation of sailors.

“The best part of the job is the people and getting to meet them, from a new Sailor 3^rd Class to a seasoned Lieutenant-Commander,” said CPO1 Budden.

The Navy is not where CPO1 Budden’s military career began. While attending Memorial University in 1993, he joined the Army as a reservist. He became a member of 1st Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment as an infantryman, participating in numerous exercises within Land Forces Atlantic Area before switching to a full-time career with the Navy upon graduation three years later.

“I enjoyed the military experience but did not see a full-time career in the Army as something I would want to do,” said CPO1 Budden. “The Navy gave me a chance to see the world while I was still young.”

Like most young sailors, his dream of travel took a few years to materialize but the Navy eventually delivered on that promise. Some of his most memorable deployments included one to the Persian Gulf aboard HMCS Ottawa in 2006-07 where he spent his first Christmas away from his family, to the Mediterranean Sea and off the coast of Africa aboard HMCS Regina in 2014, and then sailing through South East Asia with HMCS Ottawa in 2017.

During his career aboard multiple vessels CPO1 Budden worked as an Engineering Roundsman, Machinery Control Console Operator, Diving Tender Engineer, Flight Deck Engineer, Engineering Officer of the Watch and finally as a Chief Engineer.

On dry land, one of his favourite experiences was as Unit Chief Petty Officer of the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre (Pacific) where he guided a tri-force team through its mission of attracting and recruiting from the Canadian public. Another highlight was as a member of the Marine Technician Action Team where he helped identify issues with the Marine Technician Occupational Rollout and ways to improve training.

But it was his last posting as Fleet School Chief where he looked after teams of instructors and students and readied them for service in the fleet which he will treasure the most, says CPO1 Budden.

“What I have at Fleet School is influence, being able to use the knowledge of what I have gained in my years of service, showing empathy and compassion so that sailors feel listened to and making recommendations based on what I have seen over my career,” he said. “If I can share this aspect of the job with others then I can truly feel successful in my calling.”

‘The Running Man’

In 2019, CPO1 Budden also became widely known as an avid distance runner and physical fitness advocate. Over the next five years, he realized a radical transformation of his diet and level of physical fitness which saw him drop more than 100lbs while also uplifting his mental health.

He began taking long walks on his lunch break, which eventually morphed into running short distances and then half marathons, fitness classes and yoga. He stopped eating high fat foods and junk foods and says he began living by the adage that ‘you lose ounces in the gym but pounds in the kitchen’.   He got involved with Maritime Forces Pacific’s Active Living Working Group and was named Ambassador for multiple Navy Runs acting as a liaison between Victoria’s running community military.

CPO1 Budden turned over his post at Fleet School to CPO1 Oliver Meyer on June 25, ahead of his July 14 release.

Congratulations!