About Us

Land Force Atlantic Area is responsible for all Army Regular and Reserve Force elements in the four Atlantic Provinces, with the exception of the Combat Training Centre in Gagetown, New Brunswick. There are a total of four Regular and 23 Reserve units, one combined Regular and Reserve Force unit, and five bands, situated in 30 separate communities throughout Atlantic Canada.  The current area strength is approximately 7,000 personnel, comprising about 2,400 Regular, 3,100 Reserve, 700 Rangers and 700 civilian personnel.

In order to defend Canada and Canadian interests and values, while contributing to international peace and security, the Army must be capable of applying force across the spectrum of conflict and continuum of operations. Our Mission in Land Force Atlantic Area is to recruit and train individual soldiers and to integrate them into highly effective combat units for operations anywhere in the world. As well as having to be prepared to conduct military operations in defence of Canada and its sovereignty, we must also maintain Immediate Reaction Forces for domestic operations in aid of the civil power or assistance to civil authorities.

Army Training    Helping Canadians At Home    Service Abroad in the Name of Peace LFAA Motto    LFAA Crest Interpretation Army Training

The true measure of an army's worth is in the standard and effectiveness of the soldiers and officers it can field for operations. Continuous, challenging, individual and collective training is the key to preparing our soldiers to achieve their mission. Every year, hundreds of soldiers train in their home garrisons or travel to Gagetown, New Brunswick and Aldershot, Nova Scotia to undertake courses and exercises to improve their soldiering skills and to test their operational capabilities in general specialized warfare. Atlantic Canadian soldiers also participate in a week long Reserve Concentration, undertake sovereignty patrols and, as required, undergo mission specific preparations for UN, NATO, and Canada-United States operations and exercises.

Helping Canadians At Home

Here in Canada, the Army Reserve provides the framework for mobilization. But our command and control structure, the self-sustainability of our organization and its soldiers, as well as the footprint of Army Reservists in the local communities throughout Atlantic Canada, are all important contributing factors to the speed and effectiveness with which Canada’s Army can come to the aid of civil authorities in times of need. This was best demonstrated during the Oka crisis of 1990, the Manitoba flood of 1997, the ice storm of 1998, the recovery efforts after the tragic crash of Swissair flight 111 in 1998, the provision of accommodation and support to more than 5000 Kosovar refugees in 1999, and, most recently, assistance to over 3,500 airline passengers and crews diverted to Atlantic Canadian airports on September 11^th.

Service Abroad in the Name of Peace

Atlantic Canada contributed Regular and Reserve Force soldiers to serve in almost every overseas peacekeeping, peace support, and peace enforcement operation in which Canada has participated. In recent years these have included Cyprus, the Golan Heights, the Lebanon, Western Sahara, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Kosovo, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Atlantic Canadians continue to serve “in the name of peace” on many of these UN and NATO missions today. Most recently, Canada’s army became involved in the war against terrorism, and Atlantic Area units remain on standby to assist.  

LFAA Motto:

CIVES AC PRAESERTIM MILITES

Motto: Winston Churchill during WWII when talking about the Territorial Army is reported to have said,

“Citizens but even more soldiers.” This quote translated freely into Latin is the motto of LFAA.

LFAA Crest Interpretation

In heraldry pictured signs, emblems and devices are used to be representative of whatever one wants to depict, in this case, a military formation. The alternate silver and green horizontal wavy bars represent the Atlantic Ocean. These bars are taken from the original Eastern Army Command badge and locate the unit on the Atlantic coast. The plow and army sword are a play on words taken from the Biblical quote about swords and plowshares. The first denoting soldier and the latter civilian. Since a large number of soldiers in the Area are both civilian and soldiers it is representative of both the regulars and the  reserves. The word chevron is French for rafter and in heraldry was used to denote the manor house or the seat of authority in the Feudal System. In this case it denotes the headquarters. The word couped that precedes chevron means it has been cut or made smaller. This cutting was done for artistic reasons. The devices surrounding the shield is called collectively the frame. In this case it is the standard frame for an Area HQ.

Description and Interpretation of the LFAA Crest

Blazon Argent, in base barry wavy of eight argent and vert, out of which a plow and sword sable, charged with a chevron coupled gules.

(description and interpretation by Russ Comeau