As a young naval engineer, Marcel Halle loved the pipes and valves that traverse a submarine’s inside shell. They snake along every surface: on the ceiling, beside walkways and even inside one’s bunk.

“I was like a kid a candy shop,” he said, betraying a slight grin.

Now a navy captain and installed this summer as base commander of CFB Esquimalt, Halle, 46, still finds the metal whales fascinating.

Before he joined the Canadian Forces, most of his experience was above water. While attending the University of Saskatchewan in Regina, Halle was captivated by a recruitment presentation. In 1985, after graduating with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, he signed up.

The forces offered adventure and challenge. “There was a romantic component to it,” he said, using the word not in the traditional sense, but as a way to describe lifelong friendships formed with people whom your life depends on, but the commitment to protect Canada and its citizens.

Halle served aboard HMCS Yukon, HMCS Saskatchewan and HMCS Nipigon – ironically, each of the destroyer escorts was subsequently sunk as an artificial reef – before volunteering for submarine services. He was initially commissioned to HMCS Onondaga and in 1989 moved on to HMCS Ojibwa as engineering officer.

Although he grew up in Prince Albert, Sask. surrounded by grassy prairie dotted with groves of aspen and sprinkled with lakes, Halle never felt like a stranger to the ocean. When he was young he would visit his grandfather in northern Ontario and the two spent many a day with a fishing line dangling in the lake.

“I find their are a lot of similarities between the prairies and the sea,” he said.

The plight of the farmer parallels that of the fishermen, he added, since both depend on nature and weather for their livelihood.

Halle feels honoured to be running CFB Esquimalt, surrounded by rocky bluffs, Garry oaks and the grey beginnings of the Pacific Ocean. In July he was sworn in to replace retiring Capt. Mike Williamson.

It’s a big job, Halle said, a balance between playing part-time mayor and part-time business manager.

“I like to think I am still adjusting (to the position),” he said. “There are just so many things (to think about).”

Approximately 4,200 military personnel and 2,000 civilians work at CFB Esquimalt, the country’s second largest base, covering 10,300 acres.

The base supports the Joint Task Force (Pacific) commander and is the Canadian navy’s Pacific Fleet headquarters. Fourteen vessels, including one submarine, call the harbour home.

Beyond Esquimalt, Halle oversees 5,000 hectares elsewhere on the Island, on the Lower Mainland and in the Queen Charlotte Islands – a total of 23 locations.

“It’s a privilege to be here as base commander,” he said. “People in (Greater Victoria) appreciate and understand the role of the military.”

The captain, his wife Elaine – they met in university even though the pair lived eight houses apart on the same street in Prince Albert – and teenage children Matthew, Danielle and Renee are quickly settling, Halle said.

Base commanders generally serve a two- to three-year term. As to whether Halle and company might grow permanent roots on the West Coast, he shrugs his shoulders.

“As long as you wear this uniform, I can never say I will no longer move.”

raldous@vicnews.com