A Comox Valley-raised member of the Royal Canadian Air Force has risen through the military ranks to become the director general aerospace equipment program management.

Brig.-Gen. Darryl Taylor was promoted to his current rank this summer and given his director appointment; previously, he assumed the duties of Commander of 16 Wing in Borden, Ont.

Born in Prince George but raised in Comox, Taylor attended Comox Elementary School, Robb Road Middle School and Highland Secondary. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces directly out of high school in July of 1989. He had intended to study mechanical engineering at UBC until he and a few friends took a road trip to Victoria.

A few friends planned to meet with a recruiter, and Taylor decided to tag along. While there, he sat down with a recruiter and asked what types of engineers they had. Soon thereafter, he had an offer to join the RCAF as an aerospace engineer and to attend Royal Roads Military College in Victoria.

By 1993, he had finished a bachelor in mechanical engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont.

鈥淲ithout any real original intent of making a full career out of the military, I鈥檝e been presented with inspirational postings, jobs, deployments and career opportunities that have made the past 32-plus years fly past,鈥� said Taylor in a previous interview with The Record.

He has deployed with a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti, a NATO tour in Afghanistan and summer training in Baden-Solingen, Germany.

Before assuming command in Borden, he had served as senior aircraft maintenance engineering officer at 408 Sqn. in Edmonton, Commanding Officer of 1 Wing Headquarters in Kingston, and as the technical authority and weapon system manager for the Griffon and Chinook helicopters.

His postings include Cranfield, England; Huntsville, Alabama; Brussels, Belgium; and Washington, D.C.

Taylor has completed a technical master of science in thermal power (aerospace propulsion) at Cranfield University, and a master of arts in political science and military affairs while attending the Royal Military Academy of Belgium as part of the Belgian Staff College program. Over the last two summers, he completed a master of science in national resource strategy within the Eisenhower School, which is part of the National Defence University in the U.S.