Lieutenant-Colonel Susan Beharriell (1954 – 1 December 2022) was a retired Canadian Air Force Intelligence officer. She was a pioneer within the Canadian Forces, facing and challenging discrimination against women. Beharriell enlisted in the

Canadian Armed Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

in 1973 at age 19, becoming part of the first group of women to undergo the same officer training regime as men.Lieutenant Colonel (ret’d) Susan Beharriell, O.M.M., CD
EXCELerate 2021.Tim Kelly (22 January 2014)
King resident retires as highly decorated soldier
''YorkRegion.com''. She was the first woman accepted to train as an Intelligence officer; she was first interviewed to determine whether she was "a bra-burning women's libber", and was told that if she failed no woman would ever again be allowed. She completed training while attending Queen's University in Ontario.Mark Henderson (Fall 2015)
Effecting change – Susan Beharriell
''Queen's Alumni Review''. Upon graduation in 1977 she was commissioned as a watch officer at the National Defence Intelligence Centre. She faced continued discrimination during training and postings. One instructor threatened to resign to protest having a woman student, but later apologised when she was confirmed, by his own audit of the results, as the top candidate. In 1982 she became the Base Intelligence officer at

Cold Lake, Alberta Cold Lake is a city in east-northern Alberta, Canada and is named after the lake nearby. Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake (CFB Cold Lake) is situated within the city's outer limits. History Cold Lake was first recorded on a 1790 map, by the nam ...

, where she was told by male officers that she could not fly in those jets because her "female parts would be damaged".Veteran Stories:Susan Beharriell
The Memory Project. Nevertheless she recorded 80 hours as a passenger in fighter jets during her time training

CF-18 The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) variant of the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New ...

pilots. She was transferred to Air Command Headquarters in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

in 1986, and underwent the Canadian Forces Command and Staff Course. During the

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she was stationed in Germany at the Allied Air Force Central Europe, conducting intelligence analysis. She was seconded to the Privy Council Office from 1992 to 1994, after which she became the Command Intelligence officer for the Canadian Air Force. At the time of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001, she was the Deputy Commander of the Combined Intelligence Centre for NORAD/US Space Command Headquarters. She retired in 2008 from the

Canadian Forces College The Canadian Forces College (CFC) is a military staff college for senior and general officers of the Canadian Armed Forces. It provides graduate-level military education courses designed to develop leadership abilities within the Canadian Forces ...

at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.Appointee Biographies
Public Appointments Secretariat. Beharriell received the US Meritorious Service Medal, the Special Service Medal for service to NATO, the Canadian Decoration with 2 bars, and the

Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal may refer to: * Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Medal (1897) * Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal () or The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal ...

, and was an Officer of the Order of Military Merit. She was a member of The Memory Project Speakers' Bureau. Beharriell is also credited as the person who suggested the name ''Voyageur'' for the

Six String Nation Six String Nation is a public art and history project conceived by Jowi Taylor and centred around a steel-string acoustic guitar built from a variety of artifacts collected by Taylor representing diverse cultures, communities, characters and e ...

's guitar, a Canadian arts project created by

Jowi Taylor Jowi Taylor (born June 15, 1962) is a Toronto-based radio personality, public speaker and originator of the Six String Nation guitar, also known as Voyageur. As a radio broadcaster, producer, writer and host, Taylor is known for his work at CBC Rad ...

.Liz Arnason (24 September 2009)
One Guitar Unites Our Country
''The Boundary Sentinel''. Beharriell died on 1 December 2022 at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Susan Beharriell
''The Globe and Mail'', December 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beharriell, Susan 1954 births Living people Canadian female military personnel Queen's University at Kingston alumni 20th-century Canadian military personnel 20th-century Canadian women