September 15, 2025 • 54 mins
Today, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel, welcomes an outstanding Purple Heart Hero, WWIA Guide, and longstanding friend of the Foundation to the podcast, as Mr. Derek Duplisea joins us. Derek is originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada but was born in the USA.
Derek served a total of 5 years with the 1st Battalion, Royal New Brunswick Regiment (Carleton & York) as an infantryman, leaving the Canadian Armed Forces as a master corporal before enlisting in the U.S. Army.
During his second tour in Iraq, Derek was leading a patrol with 2nd platoon, Able Troop, 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, when his unit was hit by a female suicide bomber and heavy small arms fire. The blast detonated within feet of the dismounted members of the platoon, severely wounding Derek and three of his Soldiers. He spent two years recovering from his wounds before medically retiring from the Army.
Derek has been a WWIA Associate since 2010 and leads events all over the USA and Canada and graduated from the Inaugural WWIA Guide School in 2016. He is married to his Canadian sweetheart Andrea and has four wonderful children.
He loves to spend his free time traveling, hiking, camping, hunting & fishing with friends and family.
Derek holds a BS in Criminal Justice from Troy University and an MBA from University of Phoenix. He has worked in the mental health profession for several years and is a manager at Aroostook Mental Health Center on their adult crisis stabilization unit in Callus, Maine.
Takeaways:
- The WWIA Podcast aims to honor and support America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes, fostering healing and connection through shared experiences.
- Derek Duplisea, a Purple Heart recipient, shares his harrowing story of surviving a suicide bombing during his military service in Iraq, highlighting the chaos and violence of war.
- The conversation emphasizes the importance of leadership and contingency planning, detailing how Derek's military training prepared him and his team to effectively respond to crises in combat situations.
- Derek's transition from military service to working in mental health illustrates his commitment to helping others, demonstrating resilience in the face of personal trauma and adversity.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- WWIA
- Troy University
- University of Phoenix
- Raytheon
- Aroostook Mental Health Center
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
Hello and welcome to the WWIAPodcast. We're honored to have you
join us in our mission tobring honor, connection and healing
to America's combat woundedPurple Heart heroes. If this is your
first time listening to thispodcast, we welcome you if you're
(00:21):
a returning listener. Thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review if you're enjoying
what you're hearing today,WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel
welcomes an outstanding PurpleHeart hero, WWIA Guide and long standing
friend of the foundation tothe podcast as Mr. Derek Duplisea
(00:44):
joins us. Derek is originallyfrom Fredericton, New Brunswick,
Canada, but was born in theUSA. Derek served a total of five
years with the 1st BattalionRoyal New Brunswick Regiment as an
infantryman, leaving theCanadian Armed Forces as a Master
Corporal before enlisting inthe US Army. During his second tour
in Iraq, Derek was leading apatrol with 2nd Platoon, Able Troop,
(01:08):
1st Squadron, 32nd CavalryRegiment when his unit was hit by
a female suicide bomber andheavy small arms fire. The blast
detonated within feet of thedismounted members of the platoon,
severely wounding Derek andthree of his soldiers. Derek spent
two years recovering from hiswounds before medically retiring
from the Army. Derek has beena WWIA Associate since 2010 and leads
(01:34):
events all over the USA andCanada and graduated from the inaugural
WWIA Guide School in 2016. Heis married to his Canadian sweetheart
Andrea and has four wonderfulchildren. Derek loves to spend his
free time traveling, hiking,camping, hunting and fishing with
friends and family. He alsoholds a BS in Criminal justice from
(01:57):
Troy University and an MBAfrom the University of Phoenix. He's
worked in the mental healthprofession for several years as a
manager at the Aristook MentalHealth center on their Adult Crisis
Stabilization Unit in Calais,Maine. This is a fantastic episode
that we can't wait for you tohear, so let's join the conversation
with John and Derek now.
(02:24):
Hi, I'm John McDan, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect, Heal.
So today I have with me agreat American who I've known for
maybe coming up on close to 20years, I guess I would say. We were
(02:45):
chatting in the, in the prepre station here and I think it's
been about 20 years. GreatAmerican combat wounded veteran,
19 Delta cavalry scout,formerly achieved the rank of sergeant
first class, has a PurpleHeart and I'm sure a bunch of other
scary medals that go alongwith that. But Derek, Derek Duplisea,
(03:07):
thank you for being here onthe program and welcome.
Thank you. Thank you, John.
Yeah, so we were, we werechatting in, in the pre station.
He said, okay, geez, when didwe first meet? And, and why don't
you tell, why don't you kickoff with, with that story? Your,
your memory. We're taking itback to 2009.
Actually it was 2008.
(03:29):
Oh, eight. Okay, even better.2008. Start, start there. Tell it,
Tell us, tell us from yourperspective how that unfolded.
I, I believe I had justretired out of Fort Campbell and
my old squadron commander, ourKandarian, gave me a call and he
(03:51):
said, hey, how do you feelabout going do some hunting and fishing?
And I hadn't done it in years,especially after I was hurt. I hadn't
really picked up a fishingpole or a rifle to go hunting or
fishing. And I, I said, sure.He goes, he said, I got an old Ranger
buddy that putting together anorganization to take Purple heart
(04:15):
combat wounded guys out to dosome fishing and hunting. Would you
be interested? And I said,sure. And the rest is history. I
think you gave me a call, wetalked a little bit and we made plans
to head out to Florida for. Ithink it might have been the first
(04:36):
gator hunt.
It was the first.
Yeah, I think it was, it wasthe second one. There was one before
us, but definitely the firstyear that it was happening.
Yeah, I think the first one Idid, I did, I did a solo with victim
Ingues.
Yeah, yeah. And he was in my.So it was in my unit as well.
Yeah. And that, that, thatthere, there's three, there's three
(04:57):
of you and I know all three ofyou personally because of our, like
you mentioned our cander andColonel Art Kandarian, who at the
time was a battalion commander.
Yes.
Commanding A troop. Right. The1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment
in the 101st Airborne. Wasthat a Rista unit? Yes, reconnaissance.
(05:17):
The army was experimenting fora while there, you know, taking with
different types of equipmentand different kinds, types of configuration
and lashups between units. Idon't know if they're still doing
that or not. But you were withyou, you worked with Art. Art was
your battalion commander. Andthen you had, you know, those three.
(05:41):
Vic Dominguez, of course. Whata great American. Was that all. And
then Brad Alexander, you know,he, all three of you have purple
hearts. You know, of course,Vic, God bless him. I still think
very highly of, of him. He wasone of the first guys I, I ever served.
It was a. Back when I wasdoing solo missions, he and I, He
(06:04):
He. We linked up in theFlorida Keys. I'll just never forget,
you know, watching vic with,you know, 85 of his body with third
degree burns, trying to put ona wetsuit. I it, to this day, it
just, it just almost brings meto my, my knees. Anyway, so, yeah,
it's crazy how all thesethings happen. And so we go, we go
(06:28):
on this alligator hunt and Ithink we, everybody killed alligators,
but back then they were kindof small.
Yeah, I think the biggest onewe got was six feet. And the one
that I harvest was about threefeet and some inches.
Uhhuh. Yeah. But stillnonetheless, pretty, pretty well.
Were all three of you guys,Vic, Brad and yourself, was it. Were
(06:53):
they separate incidences or,or when you got, when you got in
wounded, were they separateinstances or were they all part of
one and the same?
Vic was hurt before Brad and Ion a, on a mission and Brad and I
were together. He, we were inthe same platoon. I was platoon sergeant,
(07:17):
he was one of my sectionsergeants, and we were wounded at
the same time.
Yeah. If you don't mind. Andyou shared that story with me many
years ago and I just rememberit having a major impact and if you
would be so kind to tell usthat story.
(07:38):
Yeah, yeah, no problem. I usedto tell my story for a living back
when I worked at Raytheon andTucson. So.
Yeah, I remember that.
Yeah. Yeah. It was during ourRight Seat ride. We were getting
ready to come home and we wereshowing the unit that was taken over
for us, had their company XOwith me. We went into Makadilla.
(08:06):
That's where we were, the townthat we were charged with patrolling
and all that good stuff. Andwe had gone out to introduce the
XO to the local leadership.And you know, I can't remember exactly
everything that happened that,that morning, but we did go out,
we did talk to the mooc tiresand the emons and stuff like that.
(08:29):
Got a good feel for the area.I was always really big with my guys
to always be alert, don't getcomplacent. And my biggest thing
was you just never know whensomething might happen. It might
happen the first day, it mighthappen the last day, and it could
happen any day in between. Soyeah, the patrol went well. We were
(08:52):
coming back, heading back tothe FOB and we got to this crucial
intersection and the localpopulation had just dispersed very
quickly, which was a telltalesign something was up. So I had the
patrol halted. We did have anIraqi platoon with us who were somewhat
(09:14):
squared away. They were theywere pretty good. We were in the
implementation phase, so wewould kind of hold back and supervise
as they're doing all thegroundwork. So I had them set up
a hasty traffic control pointsearch the intersection for any IEDs
or suspicious activity. Theywere conducting the TCP. They pulled
(09:39):
over a vehicle, had two malesin it, both had sidearms. They claimed
to be Iraqi police. So they'vecalled me over. I told them, you
can have your weapons back ifI see proof that your Iraqi police.
They said they left their IDcards over at the IP station, which
(10:01):
was just a couple blocks away.I said, okay, you go get them and
show the proof to me and myguys and we'll let you on your way
with your sidearms. And theylooked squared away. They didn't
look suspicious or anythinglike that. So about five minutes
had passed and I'm like, okay,something's up, because it shouldn't
(10:25):
have been taking them thislong. And that's when my spidey sense
went off and said, we've beenset up. And right as I thought that
everything went black. So I.What had happened. My gunner, Sergeant
Nathan Reinke, he was on topof the gun, on the gun truck, and
(10:47):
he had noticed a female in theblack traditional dress come walking
to. Towards them. And at thistime, you know, we. The whole time
we were in Iraq, we weren'tdirectly allowed to interact with
the female population becauseof the cultural stuff that's going
on, interaction betweenAmerican men and Iraqi women. And.
(11:13):
But he noticed that she waswalking up like she was going to
come and ask a question, whichwas, this happened before. If a woman
approaches us and ask aquestion, of course we're going to
engage. So he was watching herwalk up. And then as everything went
black for me, this woman blewherself up. Detonated suicide vest
(11:35):
that was on that she waswearing. So I get. I get the next
part of the story from theguys that were on the ground from
my platoon. So the blast haddetonated about five feet from behind
me into my right. Shedefinitely knew who the target was.
You go after the person that'sgiven all the. The orders. So I was
(12:00):
hit with the blast. The XOthat was with us was hit with the
blast. Sergeant Alexander washit with the bl. Sergeant Kate and
Specialist Ramirez were alsohit by the blast. I was just given
the order to wrap the patrolup when I was, when this happened,
because I knew something wasgoing down. So that's why I had the
leadership with me and prettygood coordinated attack on. On their
(12:26):
end as soon as she detonated,they hit us with small arms fire.
So when the next thing Iremember is like Saving Private Ryan,
when he's storming the beachesand he gets hit by, or the motor
round or the interior shellhits by him and knocks him down and
it's, it's completely quiet.And that's. I knew something had
(12:49):
happened. And I'm, internally,I'm saying, okay, I just got shot
by sniper. Something badhappened. I'm. And I'm not a real
religious guy, but, you know,as the old saying goes, you know,
when you're in a foxhole andyou're deep in the, in, in the stuff,
(13:09):
there's no such thing as anatheist. So I'm sitting there telling
God, like, just take care ofmy family, take care of my children,
because at the time I had twosmall daughters and a preteen, and
that's the only thing I couldthink of. But then like on Saving
Private Ryan, that, that bigwhooshing noise, it just like that.
(13:31):
And all of a sudden I'mhearing AK47 rounds pinging off the
asphalt next to my head, nextto my body. I just hear chaos. And
I'm yelling for SergeantReinke. He, he told me the rest of
the story after that, hejumped to the ground. He saw me laying
(13:51):
there, came up, pulled me backinto under from fire, cover from
fire, enemy fire. And he saidhe was giving me the quick assessment
of what, what happened to me,injury wise. He took my, my Mitch
helmet off and when he took itoff, he, he said that he, he just
(14:13):
couldn't believe what he wasseeing. And piece of shrapnel had
gone through the back of myhelmet and went through my skull
and lodged in the top of mybrain. And he said there was, you
know, literally a brainbucket. So that was pretty. But I
don't remember any of this. Ijust remember yelling for him to
come and get me. I rememberhim telling me that everything is
(14:37):
going to be fine. We had ourthird platoon who had just left on
their mission, who on the wayto their, wherever they were going
to, they heard the blast andthen heard the radio traffic and
they soon got there to, toprovide support to defeat the enemy.
(15:00):
So were you on the ground?
Were you dismounted with allthis mounted? Except for the gunners,
they were all. And thankgoodness they were up and where they
were supposed to be and allthat good stuff, because once that
blast went off and then theygot us all behind cover into a casualty
(15:20):
collection point, my team knewexactly what to do. And that was
Defeat the enemy. And theyreturned fire. I could hear the fight
going on. I could hear. Thisis just pure chaos. I had no sense
except for hearing. I couldn'tsmell, I couldn't see, couldn't taste,
(15:41):
couldn't feel anything. Andthat's probably for the best considering
the injuries that I sustainedand I didn't and my men sustained
as well. The last thing youwant to do or see over there is your
own guys beat up pretty bad. So.
Yeah. Wow. How far.
(16:01):
How.
What do you. What do you thinkthe distance was from the female
suicide bomber to you when shedetonated? When she blew herself
off?
Sergeant Reinke said it wasabout five to six feet.
Oh, my God.
And. Yeah, I'll fast forward alittle bit. When I was recovering
at Walter Reed and Bethesda,the naval hospital, I was doing some
(16:25):
work for Jaido, the joint IEDdefeat organization. And my boss
just happened to be a cafScout, too, and we knew each other.
And he went in and looked upthe report from Gio, and they said
that after they did theirforensic investigation, they determined
that the female suicidebomber, who was in fact, the first
(16:48):
case of a female suicidebomber in Iraq. So I don't know if
that's the thing to be proudof. Be the test bed for that. So
that she had the vest onbackwards or inside out where the
bulk of the blast went intoher. I mean, we still got banged
up pretty bad, but they saidthat saved our lives. That whoever.
(17:12):
Whether it was her, whoeverput that vest on her screwed it up.
And, you know, I'm internallythankful that. That they did.
Inshallah. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Wow.
It was. Yeah, I guess it wasfull of ball bearings. The shrapnel
that I received thatperiodically was coming out of me
the next couple years wasmostly asphalt. I'm sure there was
(17:38):
pieces. I have two big piecesstill above both knees that I don't.
It might come out years fromnow. Who knows? It is. Does show
up on an mri, but it's notmetal, so I presume it's either asphalt
or bone from suicide bomber.So, yeah, so they get us all in the
(18:02):
casualty collection point. I'mstill trying to give orders at this
time to Sergeant Reinke and,you know, God bless him, and. And
Adam Turcotte, who was aspecialist at that time, and two
really good, great soldiers.And they took charge because Sergeant
Alexander was out of the fightand the third in command, Sergeant
(18:23):
Kate, was taken out of thefight and. And Specialist Kate, he
was one of my dismounts. Hewas. Oh, no, actually he was the
truck commander. He was liketechnically the third in command.
We were all taken out of thefight. So Sergeant Reinke was just
newly promoted to bucksergeant, took control and, and him
(18:46):
and Terrcott were both awardedthe bronze star for valor and rightfully
so. Because one, one of theother biggest things I always harped
on was contingency planningand making sure that my guys, whether
you're the brand new privatein the platoon or you're the seasoned
platoon sergeant or thelieutenant, that everybody's a leader
(19:08):
and you might have to takeover. And this was a textbook case
of that. And I remember my oldplatoon Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne
Division, the former seat,John and Wayne Troxell drilled that
into us as a young paratrooperand never left me. And I thank him
and I thank God every day thatI knew about contingency planning
(19:32):
because those two outstanding19 Delta Cascouts from the 101st
Airborne Division took chargeand defeated the enemy, got us on
the casual collection pointand got the medevac there and got
us to where we needed to gofor follow up care. We all did survive.
(19:53):
Sergeant Alexander and I both,we're all evac to Balad, the Air
Force trauma center. It wastold to me that both of us had passed
away on the operating table.They brought us back. I don't really
have any recollection of anyof that stuff. The next thing I remember
(20:17):
is I'm waking up and I don'thave a clue what happened still.
I just wake up and there's mymemories just of this female looking
at me with short curly hair, alittle bit older, probably in her
40s, and the distinctivechaplain symbol on her uniform. Of
(20:38):
course I start freaking outlike I get my last rights here. I
had no idea what was going on,but she was like, no, no, you're
fine, you're fine, you'reembolade, you're receiving treatment.
They didn't tell me whathappened. She said, I got this iridium
phone, satellite phone. I needyou to call somebody back home and
tell them that you're okay.And like I wasn't feeling any pain.
(21:02):
I just, this is just the only.They must have brought me out of
a coma, medical coma, and thenput me right back into it afterwards.
But the only number I couldremember and I remembered doing this
was calling my dad, who livesin New Brunswick, Canada, right beside
Maine. And he had received thecall earlier that day that I was
(21:22):
severely wounded and that hehad to get his passport ready because
it wasn't looking good. And hewas probably coming to claim his
son in Germany, so you canimagine his state of mind. So I,
yeah, I, I call. It's like 2o' clock in the morning here and
where he's at and his heartjust stops because he's like, oh,
(21:45):
here's the army calling me andlet me know my son's passed away.
He tells the story. Well, heused to tell it to everybody and
he tells the story and he'slike, I got this call. My heart stopped.
I knew the army was calling mefor give me the bad news. And. And
all of a sudden he hears hisson's like, hey dad, what's up? Just
(22:06):
like it was nothing thathappened. And I'm like, that's pretty
much what I said. Hey dad,I'm. I'm fine. They told me to give
you a call. I got a PurpleHeart and it's definitely not worth
it. But I hadn't received anyPurple Heart at that point. But,
you know, just common sensekicked in. Like, of course I was
(22:26):
hurt, but I still had no idea.And yeah, they put me back in a coma.
The next thing I remembercoming off this airplane, probably
a C130 or C17 or something,and I'm being rolled off this plane.
And then I remember being inthis medical room and it's just.
(22:51):
I thought I was dreamingbecause next thing I know, my old
first sergeant from the 82ndAirborne Division sitting there talking
to me and I'm like. Because I,I had had no idea. I thought probably
I was hallucinating ordreaming, but it was, it really did
happen. Sergeant MajorBlackwood at. Roger Blackwood at
the time was Ironside 7. So hewas sergeant major of 1st Armored
(23:16):
Division in Germany. He hadfound out from my Sergeant Major
Paul that we had been severelywounded and on our way to launch
stool. And so he came andescorted me and my men off the plane
and was there. And I rememberhim talking to me and saying, is
(23:37):
there anything that you need?And I said, look, the only thing
I need, Sergeant Major, is foryou to find Sergeant Alexander and
tell him how prayer you are.Because we both served under. So
he was my first sergeant inthe 82nd, but he was also our regimental
sergeant major with 2ndArmored Cavalry Regiment during my
(23:58):
first tour in Iraq. And I toldhim, I said, if you can present his
Purple Heart to him, thatwould be mean the world to him. So
he, he came back and told mehe did that and. Yeah, and then when
I was in Bethesda, the navalhospital I remember when I finally
got to use the computer, checkmy email, and I had no idea, but
(24:21):
he sent me a picture of himstanding next to me. And I'm in.
I'm in this bed. It saysduplicity on the back of the whiteboard,
and it says cranin otomie, orsomething to do with my brain. But
then he had pinned my Purpleheart, unofficial one, on my pillow,
and I had no idea that he didthat. So. Yeah. So. I mean. Yeah.
(24:44):
Yeah. So just, you know, youjust never know who you run into,
you know, u. S. Army, in themilitary. It's a small population,
but it's still pretty huge.
That's true.
That was. That was definitelya. A morale booster when I saw that
picture. So that's pretty muchit in a nutshell. The first ground
(25:07):
zero, and then the first weekor two, then I end up flying into.
Oh, was that right? Patterson.That's in D.C. no, that's not D.C.
whatever. The big Air Forcebase is in the D.C. area. And I woke
up in the hospital inBethesda, and I had no clue where
I was. I had no. I was justcompletely. I was in this bed. This
(25:30):
is the first time I could feelpain. It wasn't very bad in the beginning,
but then, you know, suddenlygot worse. But there was a nurse
in my. In my room, and I'mlike. She sees me wake up. She said.
I said, where am I? She said,you're in Bethesda. And I. I just
couldn't compute it. And I'mlike, oh, I'm still in Iraq. She
(25:52):
goes, no, you're in Bethesda,Maryland, and you're at the National
Naval Medical Center. And I'mlike, navy? I'm in the Army. Why
am I in a damn Navy hospital?And she starts laughing, and she
goes, no. So, you know, beforeyou. When you're. When you're just
a line, you know, frontlineguy and you get hurt, you don't know
(26:13):
anything about the medicalsystem of the United States military.
So she was like, oh, no, youhave a bad, very bad brain injury,
which we call it a severetraumatic brain injury. And this
is the military hospital thattreats this. And I'm like, oh. And
then she gave me a mirror, andI was looking at it, Kind of had,
like, a cone head. She showedme where the shrapnel went in, and
(26:35):
she was telling me how theypulled the shrapnel out and all this
other stuff. And that wasliterally the first time I broke
down and cried because Icouldn't Move my body. My right arm
was in this weird contraption.My right leg was immobilized because
the femur had been snapped inhalf. And they put a rod in there
in Germany. So basically inGermany, they just stabilized all
(26:58):
the injuries and then sent mestateside and. Yeah, just crazy.
Wow.
What. Just an amazing story.It. It's so, it's obviously so tragic,
but it's also so inspirationalthat, you know, that you and your,
(27:19):
you know, teammates would havegone through, you know, so much and
there's just so, so much, youknow, violence and horror in that
moment. And here we are almost20 years later, and, you know, we're
friends and, you know, we'vespent a fair amount of time together.
(27:42):
And I look at you and I don'tsee any of that, you know, I mean,
I don't see any of that. Inever did, you know, of course. You
know what I mean? You look tome like, you know, just a perfectly,
you know, well put together inshape, you know, handsome man and,
(28:03):
and, and, you know, you don'tsee any of that. And, and thank.
Thank God you, you. That you.You made it through that. And, and
your teammates, you know, madeit through that. And I mean, what
a testament to. To human, youknow, resiliency and it's just incredible.
I really appreciate yousharing that story with us, Derek.
(28:27):
It's amazing that you made itthrough and all that you've done
since then. I mean, you'vedone quite a bit, too. I was just
reviewing your dossier, and Iremember you telling me the story
that before you joined. Beforeyou joined the United States Army,
(28:51):
I mean, you're. You're like adual. You have like, dual citizenship.
Right. Which we. You're also,you know, you were, Were you born
in Canada, right?
No, I was actually born in theUnited States. My.
Okay.
My mom's American from Iowa.
Okay.
And my dad's from Canada.
There it is. But you served inthe Canadian military, right? You
(29:12):
were an infantryman in theCanadian army. Is that true?
That's absolutely true. I, Iwas born in Salt Lake City. Six months
later, my dad and my momdecided to move to back where he's
from in New Brunswick, Canada.So for the first 20 years, 22 years
(29:33):
of my life, I was strictly aCanadian. I knew I had dual citizenship.
I had a little thing that saidI was born. I have a birth certificate
from the United States. So.But I was, I was a true. And not
blue, but red and whiteCanuck. So, yeah, I was an army cadet
(29:56):
for. As a teenager from 12 to17. And then I joined the Army Reserves
as an infantryman and servedin the B Company, 1st Battalion,
Royal New Brunswick Regiment,for four years. Most of the time
was what we would say in theUS Was active reserve or guard. And
(30:18):
I supported a lot of coolstuff, did. Went to a lot of courses
and did a couple ofdeployments within Canada and did
some really cool stuff. And Ilearned. I learned a lot. And I really
do believe that was that setthe base or the cornerstone for my
military career. The Canadianmilitary is very small, and they
(30:40):
rely a lot, the regular force,on the. They rely a lot on the reserves
to fill the ranks when theyneed them. So I did a few stints
with a 2nd Battalion, RoyalCanadian Regiment, which was in CFP
Gagetown, which I. It's nextto where I grew up in New Brunswick.
So, yeah, it's. I had a blast,and I just. It was a great time.
(31:05):
And I just decided one daythat I had to find something different.
And one of my. My. One of mysergeants, he used to. He was in
the old parachute regiment inCanada, and he's like, hey, you're
born in the United States. Whydon't you go check out the US Military?
And I was like, I even thoughtabout it before, and so I said, okay.
(31:27):
So me and a couple of mybuddies, we drove to Calais. Well,
we're. We kind of live now.Callous is about 10 miles north of
Robinson. It's the border townbetween New Brunswick and Maine.
And at that time, they hadarmy recruiter. They had a Marine
recruiter, and I think it wasNavy. And I walked into the Marine
(31:52):
Corps, and that guy just. Iwas like, wow. Everything you ever
read or saw about Marines was100 true. And I said, these guys
are way too uptight for me.
Wound a little too tight.Yeah, God bless.
I was like. I was like, youguys have nice uniforms, but no,
(32:12):
this isn't for me. Walked overto the. To the army, and this was
a night. This was September of1990 or August of 93. And so I was
22 years old, and it waspretty cool. He saw, hey, how's it
going? He said, oh, you gotthree guys coming to join the army
(32:36):
today. And my buddy's like,no, this one guy, he's. He's a dual
citizen. And so he, you know,he asked me all this stuff and asked
me if I had a Social Securitynumber. And I said, no, I'm Canadian,
but I was born in the U.S. so,you know, after I became a recruiter,
Too. Probably the low point ofmy career. But I did learn a lot.
(32:58):
I. I was successful, but Ididn't every minute of three years.
I hated it. So he, he got mequalified and gave me some practice
asvab and I scored well. Andhe told me I had to go up to Presque
Isle, Maine to get my SocialSecurity number. And my mom drove
me up there and we got it andwent down to MEPs and Portland, Maine.
(33:18):
And I was hell bent on gettingin my contract infantry with the
Ranger option and go right toa Ranger battalion. But, you know,
they were like, oh, we don'thave any slots. And I said, what
about infantry going into the82nd Airborne Division? Oh, we don't
(33:40):
have any slots. And I'm like.I said, medic. You get any medic
jobs? Oh, no one have anyslots. I said, okay, what do you
have?
Yeah, this is how they dothat. They have, they have a critical
shortage and it's called 19Deltas at the time.
Well, they said. I said, whatdo you have that's going to the Ranger
bat? He goes, cook. And I'mlike, no, no, no, I don't care if
(34:01):
I'm a Ranger. I'm not going tobe a cook. Or he said, Then he said,
airborne option there was 13Bravo or 11 Delta or 19 Delta. And
I was like, oh, told me onewas the 13 series was artillery.
And I said, no, I'm doing thateither. So I said, tell me about
(34:23):
this Calvary Scout. Becausein, in the Canadian army, we don't
have the word calvary. It'sjust recon or recce. And so he goes,
well, you know, he showed me,brought out this big laser disc thing,
stuck it in the machine andshowed these 19 Delta Calvary Scouts
(34:44):
riding dune buggies and mo.Like, like dirt bikes. And they're
just parachutes on their back.Yeah. And all this stuff. And I'm
like, of course. He's like,oh, yeah, that's elite. And this.
And this recruiter, heactually was a Marine before. Okay.
In Vietnam, he was a Vietnamveteran. And so, so he was a 13 Bang
(35:09):
Bang or Red Leg, whatever theycall themselves. And so he was telling
me about that and, and thenshowed me that video on 19 Delta.
And I said, oh, can I getguaranteed airborne School and 82nd
Airborne Division at FortBragg? He goes, well, you just tell
that to the guy down in Metswhen you go, yeah, right. So I went
down to MEPs and, and make along story short, I told them exactly
(35:32):
what I wanted and they put itin the contract, which in the Canadian
armed forces, I mean you, whenyou go to join, they put you where,
wherever they want you. Andnot necessarily just the army, you're
open to the air force and thenavy as well. So yeah, so yeah, that's
how I. That was. In Septemberand December I shipped off to Fort
(35:55):
Knox, four months of 19 DeltaReconnaissance Specialist training,
graduated that in May or Aprilof that year, 94 straight to Fort
Benning for airborne school,graduated that and then straight
up to Fort Bragg. And beingpart of the 82nd and wearing that
(36:17):
maroon beret was one of thethings I've always wanted to do,
whether it was Canadianmilitary or Canadian army or U. S.
Army. And so I made thathappen. And one of the cool facts
is during when I was in the82nd, I went down to me or my buddy,
I can't really remember, butwe went down, we found out where
the Canadian army airborneliaison guy was and he went down
(36:41):
and said, what are the chancesof us going to Canadian airborne
school up in Edmonton,Alberta? And he was like, when do
you want to go? And I'm like,is that easy? He goes, yeah, if your
commander approves it. So wewent back, talked to our company
commander and he said, could Iget a slot? And I said, I was like,
(37:02):
I don't know. So three of uswere approved to go and we drove
up together from Fort Braggall the way up to Edmonton, Alberta
in the dead of winter inMarch. And I remember we started
the jump portion of the jumpcourse and it was St. Patrick's Day
because they're giving usgreen beer and. Yeah. So long story
(37:26):
short, my goal, my, my, one ofmy biggest thing was always become
a Canadian paratrooper and Ihad to join a thorn army to make
it happen. So we did, I didfive jumps, one, two jumps off the
ramp on a C130, whichtypically doesn't happen in you in
the 82nd. So that was prettycool. Jumping with snowshoes and
(37:48):
rifles and winter camouflageand all this other stuff. So it was
definitely a highlight of mycareer and I look back on it with
great memory and stuff likethat. So.
But yeah, wow, that's awesome,man. And, and then, and then, you
know, I want to get to acouple of the things here and I appreciate
(38:09):
you being generous with yourtime, but you, you also are a guide.
You've been through the WWIguide school and you've been, you
know, when we have a hardmission, you know, something that's
non standard that I am, youknow, concerned about, you know,
(38:32):
who's the right person to putinto this, you know, challenging
event or this challengingscenario. That's non standard, meaning
it's not our typical typemission. You're always the first
person that comes to mindbecause if you look at your career
and what's happened to you andwho you are, you know, at your essence,
(38:53):
you've dealt with a lot ofadversity, a lot of adversity, a
lot of complexity. And soobviously I think you can handle
anything. So we've put you ona lot of missions and you've been
very, very successful. So youare serving as a WWI guide, you've
(39:15):
been to our guide school,you're out there giving back. If
you don't mind, tell us whatthat space means to you, the foundation
in our work and in, in yourown words, what, what kind of impact
does that, you know, have onyou as a leader in that space?
(39:38):
Well, it kind of all startsback with Art introduced me to you
and I think maybe in his, inhis head he was like, oh, maybe there's
some future plans for Derekhere to continue his service, but
on a different level withcombat wounded veterans. I know that
(39:59):
you had asked me to be anassociate pretty early in the game,
so it was probably about 2010when I was working at Raytheon as
their wounded warrior liaison.And then I went to work for another
big non profit and kind oftook some time off after that. But
after, after that gig, Idecided to take some time for myself
(40:22):
because I went right from thearmy and jumped right in like, like
most of us think we'reinvincible. And at this time time
I was like, whoa, I need toslow down, I need some time to readjust,
figure things out. I had,right after I got hurt, I graduated
(40:42):
with my bachelor's degree,then right after I retired, got my
master's degree and I wastrying to figure things out. Like
it's pretty hard when you gofrom a high speed, fast paced job
as, you know, a line unit guy,front line cav scout, airborne, all
that aerosol, and then sit ata desk or you know, I wasn't really
(41:08):
sitting at a desk, but itwasn't the same type of job. So when
you had asked me in 2016, Ithink I had just taken a job with
U. S. Fish and wildlifeservice, national wildlife refuge
up in Alaska to do polar bearstuff. And you had asked me if I
(41:31):
wanted to go to the inauguralguide school when I got back in 2017.
And I was, or I don't know ifI have the dates right, but the story's
the same. But my question waslike, why do you want me to be a
guy? Like, I'm not anywhere.So when I got to guide school, I'm.
There are the likes of, youknow, all the, these outstanding
(41:53):
guys that live and breathehunting and fishing and I'm a guy
that I was doing it as justlike a hobby at best. And your exact
words were because you'reevery leadership and no, that meant
a lot to me. The wordempowerment comes in and you made
an old crusty 19 Delta combatwounded guy feel on top of the world.
(42:16):
So we had the discussion andyou know, went to guy school and
it was, it was pretty awesome.It, you know, it was good being with
like minded guys. And I sayguys because they were all guys at
that time. And yeah, it wasvery empowering. It still is empowering.
I know I took some time offthis year to get myself back into
(42:38):
a good mental state and stuffthat happened. My mother passing
away and a whole bunch ofother. And my grandson being born
and. But yeah, you, you guyssent me, I think right after I finished
guy school, I went up toWinnipeg, Canada to. Or is actually
about two or three hours northof Winnipeg to do a one off black
(43:02):
bear hunt with a young woundedmarine. And wow, that was quite the,
the adventure. And we werethere for a week and we, and we harvested
that humongous bear the firstday. So we were just kind of like
deckhands the rest of the timeand we had, we had a blast. And yeah,
ever since then, all theopportunities, I was kind of focused
(43:23):
more on fishing. And then Iasked to do some more hunting type
stuff. And from muskie toblack bear to.
You name it in a turkey hunt.
I've done them all. Shock theone in Virginia. Shotgun or running
(43:43):
dogs after deer and shootingit with a shotgun while this deer,
I'm like, there's no way I'mgonna be able to do that. And this
last day of the hunt, I hearthe dogs coming and I see this, this
buck bounding towards me. I'mlike, there is. And I, you know,
I have limitations on my rightarm. And to this day I'm like, I
don't know how I killed thatbuck, but it went down. And yeah,
(44:07):
it was a nice little, nicebuck. So yeah, yeah. And then the
black bear hunts here in NewHampshire, I've done that a couple
times and I'm still the recordholder for the biggest black bear
there. It's all just luck. Mygoal is always have the, the, the
heroes try to harvest it. Butwhen they put you out there and you're
(44:28):
by yourself and you have threebears coming to your, to your stand
and then the big one finallycomes in, I mean, I had to take it.
So.
Yeah, well, you know, and theother thing that's amazing is now
you're working in the mentalhealth arena, aren't you? Tell us
a little bit about that. Imean this is, you got an incredible
(44:50):
story, man. You've just. It's crazy.
Yeah. So we moved to Maine andwhere we live in Maine is pretty,
well, like everywhere inMaine. It's pretty rural. There's
not much job opportunitieslike the jobs I held previously after
I retired from the Army. So Iwent to work when I first got here
(45:11):
for a place called AroostookMental Health Center. At that time
I was a children's crisiscounselor. So kids from 5 years old
to 17 that are going throughany type of mental health crisis
in Maine, if they came to ouragency that we would provide mental
(45:32):
health services and they couldbe there from. Usually it's a crisis
stabilization unit, so threeto five days, but sometimes that
goes in two months. So thatwas challenging. Dealing with children
that have a whole host ofanything from maybe they just had
a PTSD from that or neglect oreven worse. So we got to see the
(45:55):
whole gambit. I that for abouthalf a year. Then I took the manager
position that oversaw the kidscrisis unit and the kids residential
unit. I did that for anothersix months and then I said, okay,
I need a break from this. Idon't, I, I think I've retired about
six times since I retired fromthe Army. So I, and I, I take some
(46:20):
time, then I get bored and I'mlike, okay, I got to go back to work.
So presently I went back towork for AMHC and about two years
ago and now I'm the managerfor their adult crisis stabilization
unit. So adults that are goingthrough any type of mental health
crisis, whether it be, I meanthe big three are depression, anxiety
(46:42):
and ptsd. But it can go intoschizoaffective disorder, anything
mental health related. So, andusually it's co occurring with substance
use and stuff like that. Soit's, it's very rewarding job when
you have people come in andthen you see the difference we're
making. Sometimes they're inand out, sometimes they're there
(47:04):
for a little bit longer. But Imanage a team of 13 counselors. There's
and one therapist and I'm themanager so we've been rocking and
rolling. We set the bar high.We. We. In the state of Maine, I
believe that we're the numberone crisis unit when it comes to
(47:25):
filling our beds. We make ourmonthly bonus every month. And that's
all attributed to my militaryleadership and what I learned and
setting standards andexplaining the standards. I don't
lead like people think I'mretired. Sometimes I do come across
as retired NCO only when Ineed to.
(47:48):
Sometimes you have to.
It's, you know, it's. It'schallenging sometimes. It's a whole
different culture betweencivilian world and. But there is
a happy medium in there. Ithink I found it so well, you know.
Super proud of you, man. Imean, I. Just. The one thing that
just jumps out at me everytime, you know, I hear your story,
(48:11):
and I haven't heard it, it'sevolved considerably since the last
time we chatted. But it'sservice. There's one. The one word
that I could say that sums youup. It's just service. I mean, you
have this incredible thinginside of you that wants to help
other people and serve yourcountries, plural, and humanity.
(48:39):
It's amazing, man. I mean,you. You're quite an individual,
buddy. And it's an honor toknow you. And I certainly do appreciate
all that you've done for ourcountry, the foundation, and just
all the lives that you touchthroughout the day. It's quite impressive,
and I appreciate you sharingyour time with us. I also understand
(49:03):
that you recently became agrandfather, right?
Yep. Just over almost threeweeks ago, my youngest daughter gave
birth to a healthy baby boy.His name is Grayson Lauren Brian
Cota. And I just saw him acouple days ago, and, yeah, that's
a great feeling. It's kind ofa weird feeling. I'm, like, old now,
(49:24):
so. But, yeah, it was just tohold them and. And, yeah, and I can't
wait to spoil them because Iremember my grandparents, and, you
know, they spoiled me rotten,but they also were a huge influence
on who I became as a. As aperson. And now I'm gonna. This is
what gets me teared up now.So. I miss my grandmother more than
(49:47):
anybody. My grandfather, whoserved in the same unit I did in
the Canadian army, and he waswounded overseas. And weird fact,
we have the exact same injuryin our right arm. He couldn't. Yeah.
Wow.
Just wild. And I could havesworn I saw him when I was in the
hospital, but maybe that wasthe good they gave me. But.
(50:10):
Yeah, and there's somethingspecial about all of it, buddy. That's
crazy. Well, I'll give you thelast whack at the pinata. If you've
got anything else you'd liketo share with us. I will say in closing,
before I turn the mic backover to you, thanks again for everything
(50:32):
that you've done. That's anincredible story, man, and I appreciate
you sharing it. I'm sure thatour listening audience will really
enjoy hearing your story aswell, but thank you. So, any saved
rounds you got there, Scout?
Yeah, I just want to give abig shout out to you and Karina and
(50:52):
David and the rest of the crewup there. You guys, anything I need,
you guys have sent me or givento me. It's cool getting a little
gifts every now and then.Another big shout out to my fellow
Purple heart hero here inMaine, Dan and his wife Katie and
(51:13):
their son Hunter.
They're great.
Great. I haven't seen themlately, but I still keep in contact
with them and I hope theylisten to this and know that they're
always in my. In my heart. Soit's good to have Dan next to where
I. If I do need. He did. Wedid go on event a couple years ago.
We went to Maryland with. Anddid some duck and. And stuff and
(51:37):
goose and we harvest. Harvestsome of that stuff. And that was
awesome. I'm glad he. We wenttogether. So we had a great time.
Yeah, thanks. Great. Thanks.Everything you've done for me, John,
from the bottom, I know I'vethanked you a billion times and I'll
probably thank you a billionmore times. If it wasn't for you
could have been ended up adifferent person, so.
(52:00):
Well, I. I just don't knowwhat to say about that, but thanks
for saying that. I. I guesswe've got an amazing team. They're
all here pulling for you guys.And then when we see somebody like
you who's just sh. You know, ashining star, it just. It just. It's
so humbling, you know, to. To.To see how far you've come given
(52:22):
so much adversity. And we'reall very, very proud of you. You
keep doing the great work. Weappreciate your leadership and you're
an inspiration to. To many andmyself included. So God bless you
and thanks for spending sometime with us, Derek.
Thank you, John. Just. Ishould give a big, huge shout out
to my wife, Andrea, who hasput up with me for a long time now,
(52:48):
and yeah, it's. God bless herand. Because there's times when,
you know, the demons do comeback and if it wasn't for her then
and you and people like youand my other support systems. And
there's a lot of people outthere that go out of their way to
make sure that we're takencare of.
Yeah, well, you got to taketime for yourself, you know, especially
(53:11):
when you're so giving, youknow, it's important, and you're.
If you're always on mission,you know, you're not spending a enough
time on yourself, then, youknow, eventually it wears on you.
So if I'd give that advice toanybody. It's okay to take a knee.
(53:32):
You gotta take any face out.Drink some water.
Water. And you can carry onwith the mission.
Okay. Try Von Ranger. Allright, buddy. God bless you. Have
a great day. Thank you again,so much. I know everybody's gonna
love to. To listen to this,and we'll send it out to everybody
(53:54):
once we got her all wrapped up.
All righty.
All right, pal. Have a greatday. Thanks for your time.
Airborne all the way.
All the way. Scouts out.
All right, thank you.
All right, bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
(54:14):
the Wounded Warriors in ActionFoundation and how you can get involved,
please please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
social media, on Facebook,Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you'd like to comment oroffer feedback about our podcast,
or if you have a suggestionfor a future episode, please email
(54:36):
us@podcast@wwiaf.org thank youfor your support and for helping
us all Honor, Connect, andHeal our combat-wounded Purple Heart
Heroes through the power ofthe great outdoors.
Foreign.
Hello and welcome to the WWIAPodcast. We're honored to have you
join us in our mission tobring honor, connection and healing
to America's combat woundedPurple Heart heroes. If this is your
first time listening to thispodcast, we welcome you if you're
(00:21):
a returning listener. Thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review if you're enjoying
what you're hearing today,WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel
welcomes an outstanding PurpleHeart hero, WWIA Guide and long standing
friend of the foundation tothe podcast as Mr. Derek Duplisea
(00:44):
joins us. Derek is originallyfrom Fredericton, New Brunswick,
Canada, but was born in theUSA. Derek served a total of five
years with the 1st BattalionRoyal New Brunswick Regiment as an
infantryman, leaving theCanadian Armed Forces as a Master
Corporal before enlisting inthe US Army. During his second tour
in Iraq, Derek was leading apatrol with 2nd Platoon, Able Troop,
(01:08):
1st Squadron, 32nd CavalryRegiment when his unit was hit by
a female suicide bomber andheavy small arms fire. The blast
detonated within feet of thedismounted members of the platoon,
severely wounding Derek andthree of his soldiers. Derek spent
two years recovering from hiswounds before medically retiring
from the Army. Derek has beena WWIA Associate since 2010 and leads
(01:34):
events all over the USA andCanada and graduated from the inaugural
WWIA Guide School in 2016. Heis married to his Canadian sweetheart
Andrea and has four wonderfulchildren. Derek loves to spend his
free time traveling, hiking,camping, hunting and fishing with
friends and family. He alsoholds a BS in Criminal justice from
(01:57):
Troy University and an MBAfrom the University of Phoenix. He's
worked in the mental healthprofession for several years as a
manager at the Aristook MentalHealth center on their Adult Crisis
Stabilization Unit in Calais,Maine. This is a fantastic episode
that we can't wait for you tohear, so let's join the conversation
with John and Derek now.
(02:24):
Hi, I'm John McDan, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect, Heal.
So today I have with me agreat American who I've known for
maybe coming up on close to 20years, I guess I would say. We were
(02:45):
chatting in the, in the prepre station here and I think it's
been about 20 years. GreatAmerican combat wounded veteran,
19 Delta cavalry scout,formerly achieved the rank of sergeant
first class, has a PurpleHeart and I'm sure a bunch of other
scary medals that go alongwith that. But Derek, Derek Duplisea,
(03:07):
thank you for being here onthe program and welcome.
Thank you. Thank you, John.
Yeah, so we were, we werechatting in, in the pre station.
He said, okay, geez, when didwe first meet? And, and why don't
you tell, why don't you kickoff with, with that story? Your,
your memory. We're taking itback to 2009.
Actually it was 2008.
(03:29):
Oh, eight. Okay, even better.2008. Start, start there. Tell it,
Tell us, tell us from yourperspective how that unfolded.
I, I believe I had justretired out of Fort Campbell and
my old squadron commander, ourKandarian, gave me a call and he
(03:51):
said, hey, how do you feelabout going do some hunting and fishing?
And I hadn't done it in years,especially after I was hurt. I hadn't
really picked up a fishingpole or a rifle to go hunting or
fishing. And I, I said, sure.He goes, he said, I got an old Ranger
buddy that putting together anorganization to take Purple heart
(04:15):
combat wounded guys out to dosome fishing and hunting. Would you
be interested? And I said,sure. And the rest is history. I
think you gave me a call, wetalked a little bit and we made plans
to head out to Florida for. Ithink it might have been the first
(04:36):
gator hunt.
It was the first.
Yeah, I think it was, it wasthe second one. There was one before
us, but definitely the firstyear that it was happening.
Yeah, I think the first one Idid, I did, I did a solo with victim
Ingues.
Yeah, yeah. And he was in my.So it was in my unit as well.
Yeah. And that, that, thatthere, there's three, there's three
(04:57):
of you and I know all three ofyou personally because of our, like
you mentioned our cander andColonel Art Kandarian, who at the
time was a battalion commander.
Yes.
Commanding A troop. Right. The1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment
in the 101st Airborne. Wasthat a Rista unit? Yes, reconnaissance.
(05:17):
The army was experimenting fora while there, you know, taking with
different types of equipmentand different kinds, types of configuration
and lashups between units. Idon't know if they're still doing
that or not. But you were withyou, you worked with Art. Art was
your battalion commander. Andthen you had, you know, those three.
(05:41):
Vic Dominguez, of course. Whata great American. Was that all. And
then Brad Alexander, you know,he, all three of you have purple
hearts. You know, of course,Vic, God bless him. I still think
very highly of, of him. He wasone of the first guys I, I ever served.
It was a. Back when I wasdoing solo missions, he and I, He
(06:04):
He. We linked up in theFlorida Keys. I'll just never forget,
you know, watching vic with,you know, 85 of his body with third
degree burns, trying to put ona wetsuit. I it, to this day, it
just, it just almost brings meto my, my knees. Anyway, so, yeah,
it's crazy how all thesethings happen. And so we go, we go
(06:28):
on this alligator hunt and Ithink we, everybody killed alligators,
but back then they were kindof small.
Yeah, I think the biggest onewe got was six feet. And the one
that I harvest was about threefeet and some inches.
Uhhuh. Yeah. But stillnonetheless, pretty, pretty well.
Were all three of you guys,Vic, Brad and yourself, was it. Were
(06:53):
they separate incidences or,or when you got, when you got in
wounded, were they separateinstances or were they all part of
one and the same?
Vic was hurt before Brad and Ion a, on a mission and Brad and I
were together. He, we were inthe same platoon. I was platoon sergeant,
(07:17):
he was one of my sectionsergeants, and we were wounded at
the same time.
Yeah. If you don't mind. Andyou shared that story with me many
years ago and I just rememberit having a major impact and if you
would be so kind to tell usthat story.
(07:38):
Yeah, yeah, no problem. I usedto tell my story for a living back
when I worked at Raytheon andTucson. So.
Yeah, I remember that.
Yeah. Yeah. It was during ourRight Seat ride. We were getting
ready to come home and we wereshowing the unit that was taken over
for us, had their company XOwith me. We went into Makadilla.
(08:06):
That's where we were, the townthat we were charged with patrolling
and all that good stuff. Andwe had gone out to introduce the
XO to the local leadership.And you know, I can't remember exactly
everything that happened that,that morning, but we did go out,
we did talk to the mooc tiresand the emons and stuff like that.
(08:29):
Got a good feel for the area.I was always really big with my guys
to always be alert, don't getcomplacent. And my biggest thing
was you just never know whensomething might happen. It might
happen the first day, it mighthappen the last day, and it could
happen any day in between. Soyeah, the patrol went well. We were
(08:52):
coming back, heading back tothe FOB and we got to this crucial
intersection and the localpopulation had just dispersed very
quickly, which was a telltalesign something was up. So I had the
patrol halted. We did have anIraqi platoon with us who were somewhat
(09:14):
squared away. They were theywere pretty good. We were in the
implementation phase, so wewould kind of hold back and supervise
as they're doing all thegroundwork. So I had them set up
a hasty traffic control pointsearch the intersection for any IEDs
or suspicious activity. Theywere conducting the TCP. They pulled
(09:39):
over a vehicle, had two malesin it, both had sidearms. They claimed
to be Iraqi police. So they'vecalled me over. I told them, you
can have your weapons back ifI see proof that your Iraqi police.
They said they left their IDcards over at the IP station, which
(10:01):
was just a couple blocks away.I said, okay, you go get them and
show the proof to me and myguys and we'll let you on your way
with your sidearms. And theylooked squared away. They didn't
look suspicious or anythinglike that. So about five minutes
had passed and I'm like, okay,something's up, because it shouldn't
(10:25):
have been taking them thislong. And that's when my spidey sense
went off and said, we've beenset up. And right as I thought that
everything went black. So I.What had happened. My gunner, Sergeant
Nathan Reinke, he was on topof the gun, on the gun truck, and
(10:47):
he had noticed a female in theblack traditional dress come walking
to. Towards them. And at thistime, you know, we. The whole time
we were in Iraq, we weren'tdirectly allowed to interact with
the female population becauseof the cultural stuff that's going
on, interaction betweenAmerican men and Iraqi women. And.
(11:13):
But he noticed that she waswalking up like she was going to
come and ask a question, whichwas, this happened before. If a woman
approaches us and ask aquestion, of course we're going to
engage. So he was watching herwalk up. And then as everything went
black for me, this woman blewherself up. Detonated suicide vest
(11:35):
that was on that she waswearing. So I get. I get the next
part of the story from theguys that were on the ground from
my platoon. So the blast haddetonated about five feet from behind
me into my right. Shedefinitely knew who the target was.
You go after the person that'sgiven all the. The orders. So I was
(12:00):
hit with the blast. The XOthat was with us was hit with the
blast. Sergeant Alexander washit with the bl. Sergeant Kate and
Specialist Ramirez were alsohit by the blast. I was just given
the order to wrap the patrolup when I was, when this happened,
because I knew something wasgoing down. So that's why I had the
leadership with me and prettygood coordinated attack on. On their
(12:26):
end as soon as she detonated,they hit us with small arms fire.
So when the next thing Iremember is like Saving Private Ryan,
when he's storming the beachesand he gets hit by, or the motor
round or the interior shellhits by him and knocks him down and
it's, it's completely quiet.And that's. I knew something had
(12:49):
happened. And I'm, internally,I'm saying, okay, I just got shot
by sniper. Something badhappened. I'm. And I'm not a real
religious guy, but, you know,as the old saying goes, you know,
when you're in a foxhole andyou're deep in the, in, in the stuff,
(13:09):
there's no such thing as anatheist. So I'm sitting there telling
God, like, just take care ofmy family, take care of my children,
because at the time I had twosmall daughters and a preteen, and
that's the only thing I couldthink of. But then like on Saving
Private Ryan, that, that bigwhooshing noise, it just like that.
(13:31):
And all of a sudden I'mhearing AK47 rounds pinging off the
asphalt next to my head, nextto my body. I just hear chaos. And
I'm yelling for SergeantReinke. He, he told me the rest of
the story after that, hejumped to the ground. He saw me laying
(13:51):
there, came up, pulled me backinto under from fire, cover from
fire, enemy fire. And he saidhe was giving me the quick assessment
of what, what happened to me,injury wise. He took my, my Mitch
helmet off and when he took itoff, he, he said that he, he just
(14:13):
couldn't believe what he wasseeing. And piece of shrapnel had
gone through the back of myhelmet and went through my skull
and lodged in the top of mybrain. And he said there was, you
know, literally a brainbucket. So that was pretty. But I
don't remember any of this. Ijust remember yelling for him to
come and get me. I rememberhim telling me that everything is
(14:37):
going to be fine. We had ourthird platoon who had just left on
their mission, who on the wayto their, wherever they were going
to, they heard the blast andthen heard the radio traffic and
they soon got there to, toprovide support to defeat the enemy.
(15:00):
So were you on the ground?
Were you dismounted with allthis mounted? Except for the gunners,
they were all. And thankgoodness they were up and where they
were supposed to be and allthat good stuff, because once that
blast went off and then theygot us all behind cover into a casualty
(15:20):
collection point, my team knewexactly what to do. And that was
Defeat the enemy. And theyreturned fire. I could hear the fight
going on. I could hear. Thisis just pure chaos. I had no sense
except for hearing. I couldn'tsmell, I couldn't see, couldn't taste,
(15:41):
couldn't feel anything. Andthat's probably for the best considering
the injuries that I sustainedand I didn't and my men sustained
as well. The last thing youwant to do or see over there is your
own guys beat up pretty bad. So.
Yeah. Wow. How far.
(16:01):
How.
What do you. What do you thinkthe distance was from the female
suicide bomber to you when shedetonated? When she blew herself
off?
Sergeant Reinke said it wasabout five to six feet.
Oh, my God.
And. Yeah, I'll fast forward alittle bit. When I was recovering
at Walter Reed and Bethesda,the naval hospital, I was doing some
(16:25):
work for Jaido, the joint IEDdefeat organization. And my boss
just happened to be a cafScout, too, and we knew each other.
And he went in and looked upthe report from Gio, and they said
that after they did theirforensic investigation, they determined
that the female suicidebomber, who was in fact, the first
(16:48):
case of a female suicidebomber in Iraq. So I don't know if
that's the thing to be proudof. Be the test bed for that. So
that she had the vest onbackwards or inside out where the
bulk of the blast went intoher. I mean, we still got banged
up pretty bad, but they saidthat saved our lives. That whoever.
(17:12):
Whether it was her, whoeverput that vest on her screwed it up.
And, you know, I'm internallythankful that. That they did.
Inshallah. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Wow.
It was. Yeah, I guess it wasfull of ball bearings. The shrapnel
that I received thatperiodically was coming out of me
the next couple years wasmostly asphalt. I'm sure there was
(17:38):
pieces. I have two big piecesstill above both knees that I don't.
It might come out years fromnow. Who knows? It is. Does show
up on an mri, but it's notmetal, so I presume it's either asphalt
or bone from suicide bomber.So, yeah, so they get us all in the
(18:02):
casualty collection point. I'mstill trying to give orders at this
time to Sergeant Reinke and,you know, God bless him, and. And
Adam Turcotte, who was aspecialist at that time, and two
really good, great soldiers.And they took charge because Sergeant
Alexander was out of the fightand the third in command, Sergeant
(18:23):
Kate, was taken out of thefight and. And Specialist Kate, he
was one of my dismounts. Hewas. Oh, no, actually he was the
truck commander. He was liketechnically the third in command.
We were all taken out of thefight. So Sergeant Reinke was just
newly promoted to bucksergeant, took control and, and him
(18:46):
and Terrcott were both awardedthe bronze star for valor and rightfully
so. Because one, one of theother biggest things I always harped
on was contingency planningand making sure that my guys, whether
you're the brand new privatein the platoon or you're the seasoned
platoon sergeant or thelieutenant, that everybody's a leader
(19:08):
and you might have to takeover. And this was a textbook case
of that. And I remember my oldplatoon Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne
Division, the former seat,John and Wayne Troxell drilled that
into us as a young paratrooperand never left me. And I thank him
and I thank God every day thatI knew about contingency planning
(19:32):
because those two outstanding19 Delta Cascouts from the 101st
Airborne Division took chargeand defeated the enemy, got us on
the casual collection pointand got the medevac there and got
us to where we needed to gofor follow up care. We all did survive.
(19:53):
Sergeant Alexander and I both,we're all evac to Balad, the Air
Force trauma center. It wastold to me that both of us had passed
away on the operating table.They brought us back. I don't really
have any recollection of anyof that stuff. The next thing I remember
(20:17):
is I'm waking up and I don'thave a clue what happened still.
I just wake up and there's mymemories just of this female looking
at me with short curly hair, alittle bit older, probably in her
40s, and the distinctivechaplain symbol on her uniform. Of
(20:38):
course I start freaking outlike I get my last rights here. I
had no idea what was going on,but she was like, no, no, you're
fine, you're fine, you'reembolade, you're receiving treatment.
They didn't tell me whathappened. She said, I got this iridium
phone, satellite phone. I needyou to call somebody back home and
tell them that you're okay.And like I wasn't feeling any pain.
(21:02):
I just, this is just the only.They must have brought me out of
a coma, medical coma, and thenput me right back into it afterwards.
But the only number I couldremember and I remembered doing this
was calling my dad, who livesin New Brunswick, Canada, right beside
Maine. And he had received thecall earlier that day that I was
(21:22):
severely wounded and that hehad to get his passport ready because
it wasn't looking good. And hewas probably coming to claim his
son in Germany, so you canimagine his state of mind. So I,
yeah, I, I call. It's like 2o' clock in the morning here and
where he's at and his heartjust stops because he's like, oh,
(21:45):
here's the army calling me andlet me know my son's passed away.
He tells the story. Well, heused to tell it to everybody and
he tells the story and he'slike, I got this call. My heart stopped.
I knew the army was calling mefor give me the bad news. And. And
all of a sudden he hears hisson's like, hey dad, what's up? Just
(22:06):
like it was nothing thathappened. And I'm like, that's pretty
much what I said. Hey dad,I'm. I'm fine. They told me to give
you a call. I got a PurpleHeart and it's definitely not worth
it. But I hadn't received anyPurple Heart at that point. But,
you know, just common sensekicked in. Like, of course I was
(22:26):
hurt, but I still had no idea.And yeah, they put me back in a coma.
The next thing I remembercoming off this airplane, probably
a C130 or C17 or something,and I'm being rolled off this plane.
And then I remember being inthis medical room and it's just.
(22:51):
I thought I was dreamingbecause next thing I know, my old
first sergeant from the 82ndAirborne Division sitting there talking
to me and I'm like. Because I,I had had no idea. I thought probably
I was hallucinating ordreaming, but it was, it really did
happen. Sergeant MajorBlackwood at. Roger Blackwood at
the time was Ironside 7. So hewas sergeant major of 1st Armored
(23:16):
Division in Germany. He hadfound out from my Sergeant Major
Paul that we had been severelywounded and on our way to launch
stool. And so he came andescorted me and my men off the plane
and was there. And I rememberhim talking to me and saying, is
(23:37):
there anything that you need?And I said, look, the only thing
I need, Sergeant Major, is foryou to find Sergeant Alexander and
tell him how prayer you are.Because we both served under. So
he was my first sergeant inthe 82nd, but he was also our regimental
sergeant major with 2ndArmored Cavalry Regiment during my
(23:58):
first tour in Iraq. And I toldhim, I said, if you can present his
Purple Heart to him, thatwould be mean the world to him. So
he, he came back and told mehe did that and. Yeah, and then when
I was in Bethesda, the navalhospital I remember when I finally
got to use the computer, checkmy email, and I had no idea, but
(24:21):
he sent me a picture of himstanding next to me. And I'm in.
I'm in this bed. It saysduplicity on the back of the whiteboard,
and it says cranin otomie, orsomething to do with my brain. But
then he had pinned my Purpleheart, unofficial one, on my pillow,
and I had no idea that he didthat. So. Yeah. So. I mean. Yeah.
(24:44):
Yeah. So just, you know, youjust never know who you run into,
you know, u. S. Army, in themilitary. It's a small population,
but it's still pretty huge.
That's true.
That was. That was definitelya. A morale booster when I saw that
picture. So that's pretty muchit in a nutshell. The first ground
(25:07):
zero, and then the first weekor two, then I end up flying into.
Oh, was that right? Patterson.That's in D.C. no, that's not D.C.
whatever. The big Air Forcebase is in the D.C. area. And I woke
up in the hospital inBethesda, and I had no clue where
I was. I had no. I was justcompletely. I was in this bed. This
(25:30):
is the first time I could feelpain. It wasn't very bad in the beginning,
but then, you know, suddenlygot worse. But there was a nurse
in my. In my room, and I'mlike. She sees me wake up. She said.
I said, where am I? She said,you're in Bethesda. And I. I just
couldn't compute it. And I'mlike, oh, I'm still in Iraq. She
(25:52):
goes, no, you're in Bethesda,Maryland, and you're at the National
Naval Medical Center. And I'mlike, navy? I'm in the Army. Why
am I in a damn Navy hospital?And she starts laughing, and she
goes, no. So, you know, beforeyou. When you're. When you're just
a line, you know, frontlineguy and you get hurt, you don't know
(26:13):
anything about the medicalsystem of the United States military.
So she was like, oh, no, youhave a bad, very bad brain injury,
which we call it a severetraumatic brain injury. And this
is the military hospital thattreats this. And I'm like, oh. And
then she gave me a mirror, andI was looking at it, Kind of had,
like, a cone head. She showedme where the shrapnel went in, and
(26:35):
she was telling me how theypulled the shrapnel out and all this
other stuff. And that wasliterally the first time I broke
down and cried because Icouldn't Move my body. My right arm
was in this weird contraption.My right leg was immobilized because
the femur had been snapped inhalf. And they put a rod in there
in Germany. So basically inGermany, they just stabilized all
(26:58):
the injuries and then sent mestateside and. Yeah, just crazy.
Wow.
What. Just an amazing story.It. It's so, it's obviously so tragic,
but it's also so inspirationalthat, you know, that you and your,
(27:19):
you know, teammates would havegone through, you know, so much and
there's just so, so much, youknow, violence and horror in that
moment. And here we are almost20 years later, and, you know, we're
friends and, you know, we'vespent a fair amount of time together.
(27:42):
And I look at you and I don'tsee any of that, you know, I mean,
I don't see any of that. Inever did, you know, of course. You
know what I mean? You look tome like, you know, just a perfectly,
you know, well put together inshape, you know, handsome man and,
(28:03):
and, and, you know, you don'tsee any of that. And, and thank.
Thank God you, you. That you.You made it through that. And, and
your teammates, you know, madeit through that. And I mean, what
a testament to. To human, youknow, resiliency and it's just incredible.
I really appreciate yousharing that story with us, Derek.
(28:27):
It's amazing that you made itthrough and all that you've done
since then. I mean, you'vedone quite a bit, too. I was just
reviewing your dossier, and Iremember you telling me the story
that before you joined. Beforeyou joined the United States Army,
(28:51):
I mean, you're. You're like adual. You have like, dual citizenship.
Right. Which we. You're also,you know, you were, Were you born
in Canada, right?
No, I was actually born in theUnited States. My.
Okay.
My mom's American from Iowa.
Okay.
And my dad's from Canada.
There it is. But you served inthe Canadian military, right? You
(29:12):
were an infantryman in theCanadian army. Is that true?
That's absolutely true. I, Iwas born in Salt Lake City. Six months
later, my dad and my momdecided to move to back where he's
from in New Brunswick, Canada.So for the first 20 years, 22 years
(29:33):
of my life, I was strictly aCanadian. I knew I had dual citizenship.
I had a little thing that saidI was born. I have a birth certificate
from the United States. So.But I was, I was a true. And not
blue, but red and whiteCanuck. So, yeah, I was an army cadet
(29:56):
for. As a teenager from 12 to17. And then I joined the Army Reserves
as an infantryman and servedin the B Company, 1st Battalion,
Royal New Brunswick Regiment,for four years. Most of the time
was what we would say in theUS Was active reserve or guard. And
(30:18):
I supported a lot of coolstuff, did. Went to a lot of courses
and did a couple ofdeployments within Canada and did
some really cool stuff. And Ilearned. I learned a lot. And I really
do believe that was that setthe base or the cornerstone for my
military career. The Canadianmilitary is very small, and they
(30:40):
rely a lot, the regular force,on the. They rely a lot on the reserves
to fill the ranks when theyneed them. So I did a few stints
with a 2nd Battalion, RoyalCanadian Regiment, which was in CFP
Gagetown, which I. It's nextto where I grew up in New Brunswick.
So, yeah, it's. I had a blast,and I just. It was a great time.
(31:05):
And I just decided one daythat I had to find something different.
And one of my. My. One of mysergeants, he used to. He was in
the old parachute regiment inCanada, and he's like, hey, you're
born in the United States. Whydon't you go check out the US Military?
And I was like, I even thoughtabout it before, and so I said, okay.
(31:27):
So me and a couple of mybuddies, we drove to Calais. Well,
we're. We kind of live now.Callous is about 10 miles north of
Robinson. It's the border townbetween New Brunswick and Maine.
And at that time, they hadarmy recruiter. They had a Marine
recruiter, and I think it wasNavy. And I walked into the Marine
(31:52):
Corps, and that guy just. Iwas like, wow. Everything you ever
read or saw about Marines was100 true. And I said, these guys
are way too uptight for me.
Wound a little too tight.Yeah, God bless.
I was like. I was like, youguys have nice uniforms, but no,
(32:12):
this isn't for me. Walked overto the. To the army, and this was
a night. This was September of1990 or August of 93. And so I was
22 years old, and it waspretty cool. He saw, hey, how's it
going? He said, oh, you gotthree guys coming to join the army
(32:36):
today. And my buddy's like,no, this one guy, he's. He's a dual
citizen. And so he, you know,he asked me all this stuff and asked
me if I had a Social Securitynumber. And I said, no, I'm Canadian,
but I was born in the U.S. so,you know, after I became a recruiter,
Too. Probably the low point ofmy career. But I did learn a lot.
(32:58):
I. I was successful, but Ididn't every minute of three years.
I hated it. So he, he got mequalified and gave me some practice
asvab and I scored well. Andhe told me I had to go up to Presque
Isle, Maine to get my SocialSecurity number. And my mom drove
me up there and we got it andwent down to MEPs and Portland, Maine.
(33:18):
And I was hell bent on gettingin my contract infantry with the
Ranger option and go right toa Ranger battalion. But, you know,
they were like, oh, we don'thave any slots. And I said, what
about infantry going into the82nd Airborne Division? Oh, we don't
(33:40):
have any slots. And I'm like.I said, medic. You get any medic
jobs? Oh, no one have anyslots. I said, okay, what do you
have?
Yeah, this is how they dothat. They have, they have a critical
shortage and it's called 19Deltas at the time.
Well, they said. I said, whatdo you have that's going to the Ranger
bat? He goes, cook. And I'mlike, no, no, no, I don't care if
(34:01):
I'm a Ranger. I'm not going tobe a cook. Or he said, Then he said,
airborne option there was 13Bravo or 11 Delta or 19 Delta. And
I was like, oh, told me onewas the 13 series was artillery.
And I said, no, I'm doing thateither. So I said, tell me about
(34:23):
this Calvary Scout. Becausein, in the Canadian army, we don't
have the word calvary. It'sjust recon or recce. And so he goes,
well, you know, he showed me,brought out this big laser disc thing,
stuck it in the machine andshowed these 19 Delta Calvary Scouts
(34:44):
riding dune buggies and mo.Like, like dirt bikes. And they're
just parachutes on their back.Yeah. And all this stuff. And I'm
like, of course. He's like,oh, yeah, that's elite. And this.
And this recruiter, heactually was a Marine before. Okay.
In Vietnam, he was a Vietnamveteran. And so, so he was a 13 Bang
(35:09):
Bang or Red Leg, whatever theycall themselves. And so he was telling
me about that and, and thenshowed me that video on 19 Delta.
And I said, oh, can I getguaranteed airborne School and 82nd
Airborne Division at FortBragg? He goes, well, you just tell
that to the guy down in Metswhen you go, yeah, right. So I went
down to MEPs and, and make along story short, I told them exactly
(35:32):
what I wanted and they put itin the contract, which in the Canadian
armed forces, I mean you, whenyou go to join, they put you where,
wherever they want you. Andnot necessarily just the army, you're
open to the air force and thenavy as well. So yeah, so yeah, that's
how I. That was. In Septemberand December I shipped off to Fort
(35:55):
Knox, four months of 19 DeltaReconnaissance Specialist training,
graduated that in May or Aprilof that year, 94 straight to Fort
Benning for airborne school,graduated that and then straight
up to Fort Bragg. And beingpart of the 82nd and wearing that
(36:17):
maroon beret was one of thethings I've always wanted to do,
whether it was Canadianmilitary or Canadian army or U. S.
Army. And so I made thathappen. And one of the cool facts
is during when I was in the82nd, I went down to me or my buddy,
I can't really remember, butwe went down, we found out where
the Canadian army airborneliaison guy was and he went down
(36:41):
and said, what are the chancesof us going to Canadian airborne
school up in Edmonton,Alberta? And he was like, when do
you want to go? And I'm like,is that easy? He goes, yeah, if your
commander approves it. So wewent back, talked to our company
commander and he said, could Iget a slot? And I said, I was like,
(37:02):
I don't know. So three of uswere approved to go and we drove
up together from Fort Braggall the way up to Edmonton, Alberta
in the dead of winter inMarch. And I remember we started
the jump portion of the jumpcourse and it was St. Patrick's Day
because they're giving usgreen beer and. Yeah. So long story
(37:26):
short, my goal, my, my, one ofmy biggest thing was always become
a Canadian paratrooper and Ihad to join a thorn army to make
it happen. So we did, I didfive jumps, one, two jumps off the
ramp on a C130, whichtypically doesn't happen in you in
the 82nd. So that was prettycool. Jumping with snowshoes and
(37:48):
rifles and winter camouflageand all this other stuff. So it was
definitely a highlight of mycareer and I look back on it with
great memory and stuff likethat. So.
But yeah, wow, that's awesome,man. And, and then, and then, you
know, I want to get to acouple of the things here and I appreciate
(38:09):
you being generous with yourtime, but you, you also are a guide.
You've been through the WWIguide school and you've been, you
know, when we have a hardmission, you know, something that's
non standard that I am, youknow, concerned about, you know,
(38:32):
who's the right person to putinto this, you know, challenging
event or this challengingscenario. That's non standard, meaning
it's not our typical typemission. You're always the first
person that comes to mindbecause if you look at your career
and what's happened to you andwho you are, you know, at your essence,
(38:53):
you've dealt with a lot ofadversity, a lot of adversity, a
lot of complexity. And soobviously I think you can handle
anything. So we've put you ona lot of missions and you've been
very, very successful. So youare serving as a WWI guide, you've
(39:15):
been to our guide school,you're out there giving back. If
you don't mind, tell us whatthat space means to you, the foundation
in our work and in, in yourown words, what, what kind of impact
does that, you know, have onyou as a leader in that space?
(39:38):
Well, it kind of all startsback with Art introduced me to you
and I think maybe in his, inhis head he was like, oh, maybe there's
some future plans for Derekhere to continue his service, but
on a different level withcombat wounded veterans. I know that
(39:59):
you had asked me to be anassociate pretty early in the game,
so it was probably about 2010when I was working at Raytheon as
their wounded warrior liaison.And then I went to work for another
big non profit and kind oftook some time off after that. But
after, after that gig, Idecided to take some time for myself
(40:22):
because I went right from thearmy and jumped right in like, like
most of us think we'reinvincible. And at this time time
I was like, whoa, I need toslow down, I need some time to readjust,
figure things out. I had,right after I got hurt, I graduated
(40:42):
with my bachelor's degree,then right after I retired, got my
master's degree and I wastrying to figure things out. Like
it's pretty hard when you gofrom a high speed, fast paced job
as, you know, a line unit guy,front line cav scout, airborne, all
that aerosol, and then sit ata desk or you know, I wasn't really
(41:08):
sitting at a desk, but itwasn't the same type of job. So when
you had asked me in 2016, Ithink I had just taken a job with
U. S. Fish and wildlifeservice, national wildlife refuge
up in Alaska to do polar bearstuff. And you had asked me if I
(41:31):
wanted to go to the inauguralguide school when I got back in 2017.
And I was, or I don't know ifI have the dates right, but the story's
the same. But my question waslike, why do you want me to be a
guy? Like, I'm not anywhere.So when I got to guide school, I'm.
There are the likes of, youknow, all the, these outstanding
(41:53):
guys that live and breathehunting and fishing and I'm a guy
that I was doing it as justlike a hobby at best. And your exact
words were because you'reevery leadership and no, that meant
a lot to me. The wordempowerment comes in and you made
an old crusty 19 Delta combatwounded guy feel on top of the world.
(42:16):
So we had the discussion andyou know, went to guy school and
it was, it was pretty awesome.It, you know, it was good being with
like minded guys. And I sayguys because they were all guys at
that time. And yeah, it wasvery empowering. It still is empowering.
I know I took some time offthis year to get myself back into
(42:38):
a good mental state and stuffthat happened. My mother passing
away and a whole bunch ofother. And my grandson being born
and. But yeah, you, you guyssent me, I think right after I finished
guy school, I went up toWinnipeg, Canada to. Or is actually
about two or three hours northof Winnipeg to do a one off black
(43:02):
bear hunt with a young woundedmarine. And wow, that was quite the,
the adventure. And we werethere for a week and we, and we harvested
that humongous bear the firstday. So we were just kind of like
deckhands the rest of the timeand we had, we had a blast. And yeah,
ever since then, all theopportunities, I was kind of focused
(43:23):
more on fishing. And then Iasked to do some more hunting type
stuff. And from muskie toblack bear to.
You name it in a turkey hunt.
I've done them all. Shock theone in Virginia. Shotgun or running
(43:43):
dogs after deer and shootingit with a shotgun while this deer,
I'm like, there's no way I'mgonna be able to do that. And this
last day of the hunt, I hearthe dogs coming and I see this, this
buck bounding towards me. I'mlike, there is. And I, you know,
I have limitations on my rightarm. And to this day I'm like, I
don't know how I killed thatbuck, but it went down. And yeah,
(44:07):
it was a nice little, nicebuck. So yeah, yeah. And then the
black bear hunts here in NewHampshire, I've done that a couple
times and I'm still the recordholder for the biggest black bear
there. It's all just luck. Mygoal is always have the, the, the
heroes try to harvest it. Butwhen they put you out there and you're
(44:28):
by yourself and you have threebears coming to your, to your stand
and then the big one finallycomes in, I mean, I had to take it.
So.
Yeah, well, you know, and theother thing that's amazing is now
you're working in the mentalhealth arena, aren't you? Tell us
a little bit about that. Imean this is, you got an incredible
(44:50):
story, man. You've just. It's crazy.
Yeah. So we moved to Maine andwhere we live in Maine is pretty,
well, like everywhere inMaine. It's pretty rural. There's
not much job opportunitieslike the jobs I held previously after
I retired from the Army. So Iwent to work when I first got here
(45:11):
for a place called AroostookMental Health Center. At that time
I was a children's crisiscounselor. So kids from 5 years old
to 17 that are going throughany type of mental health crisis
in Maine, if they came to ouragency that we would provide mental
(45:32):
health services and they couldbe there from. Usually it's a crisis
stabilization unit, so threeto five days, but sometimes that
goes in two months. So thatwas challenging. Dealing with children
that have a whole host ofanything from maybe they just had
a PTSD from that or neglect oreven worse. So we got to see the
(45:55):
whole gambit. I that for abouthalf a year. Then I took the manager
position that oversaw the kidscrisis unit and the kids residential
unit. I did that for anothersix months and then I said, okay,
I need a break from this. Idon't, I, I think I've retired about
six times since I retired fromthe Army. So I, and I, I take some
(46:20):
time, then I get bored and I'mlike, okay, I got to go back to work.
So presently I went back towork for AMHC and about two years
ago and now I'm the managerfor their adult crisis stabilization
unit. So adults that are goingthrough any type of mental health
crisis, whether it be, I meanthe big three are depression, anxiety
(46:42):
and ptsd. But it can go intoschizoaffective disorder, anything
mental health related. So, andusually it's co occurring with substance
use and stuff like that. Soit's, it's very rewarding job when
you have people come in andthen you see the difference we're
making. Sometimes they're inand out, sometimes they're there
(47:04):
for a little bit longer. But Imanage a team of 13 counselors. There's
and one therapist and I'm themanager so we've been rocking and
rolling. We set the bar high.We. We. In the state of Maine, I
believe that we're the numberone crisis unit when it comes to
(47:25):
filling our beds. We make ourmonthly bonus every month. And that's
all attributed to my militaryleadership and what I learned and
setting standards andexplaining the standards. I don't
lead like people think I'mretired. Sometimes I do come across
as retired NCO only when Ineed to.
(47:48):
Sometimes you have to.
It's, you know, it's. It'schallenging sometimes. It's a whole
different culture betweencivilian world and. But there is
a happy medium in there. Ithink I found it so well, you know.
Super proud of you, man. Imean, I. Just. The one thing that
just jumps out at me everytime, you know, I hear your story,
(48:11):
and I haven't heard it, it'sevolved considerably since the last
time we chatted. But it'sservice. There's one. The one word
that I could say that sums youup. It's just service. I mean, you
have this incredible thinginside of you that wants to help
other people and serve yourcountries, plural, and humanity.
(48:39):
It's amazing, man. I mean,you. You're quite an individual,
buddy. And it's an honor toknow you. And I certainly do appreciate
all that you've done for ourcountry, the foundation, and just
all the lives that you touchthroughout the day. It's quite impressive,
and I appreciate you sharingyour time with us. I also understand
(49:03):
that you recently became agrandfather, right?
Yep. Just over almost threeweeks ago, my youngest daughter gave
birth to a healthy baby boy.His name is Grayson Lauren Brian
Cota. And I just saw him acouple days ago, and, yeah, that's
a great feeling. It's kind ofa weird feeling. I'm, like, old now,
(49:24):
so. But, yeah, it was just tohold them and. And, yeah, and I can't
wait to spoil them because Iremember my grandparents, and, you
know, they spoiled me rotten,but they also were a huge influence
on who I became as a. As aperson. And now I'm gonna. This is
what gets me teared up now.So. I miss my grandmother more than
(49:47):
anybody. My grandfather, whoserved in the same unit I did in
the Canadian army, and he waswounded overseas. And weird fact,
we have the exact same injuryin our right arm. He couldn't. Yeah.
Wow.
Just wild. And I could havesworn I saw him when I was in the
hospital, but maybe that wasthe good they gave me. But.
(50:10):
Yeah, and there's somethingspecial about all of it, buddy. That's
crazy. Well, I'll give you thelast whack at the pinata. If you've
got anything else you'd liketo share with us. I will say in closing,
before I turn the mic backover to you, thanks again for everything
(50:32):
that you've done. That's anincredible story, man, and I appreciate
you sharing it. I'm sure thatour listening audience will really
enjoy hearing your story aswell, but thank you. So, any saved
rounds you got there, Scout?
Yeah, I just want to give abig shout out to you and Karina and
(50:52):
David and the rest of the crewup there. You guys, anything I need,
you guys have sent me or givento me. It's cool getting a little
gifts every now and then.Another big shout out to my fellow
Purple heart hero here inMaine, Dan and his wife Katie and
(51:13):
their son Hunter.
They're great.
Great. I haven't seen themlately, but I still keep in contact
with them and I hope theylisten to this and know that they're
always in my. In my heart. Soit's good to have Dan next to where
I. If I do need. He did. Wedid go on event a couple years ago.
We went to Maryland with. Anddid some duck and. And stuff and
(51:37):
goose and we harvest. Harvestsome of that stuff. And that was
awesome. I'm glad he. We wenttogether. So we had a great time.
Yeah, thanks. Great. Thanks.Everything you've done for me, John,
from the bottom, I know I'vethanked you a billion times and I'll
probably thank you a billionmore times. If it wasn't for you
could have been ended up adifferent person, so.
(52:00):
Well, I. I just don't knowwhat to say about that, but thanks
for saying that. I. I guesswe've got an amazing team. They're
all here pulling for you guys.And then when we see somebody like
you who's just sh. You know, ashining star, it just. It just. It's
so humbling, you know, to. To.To see how far you've come given
(52:22):
so much adversity. And we'reall very, very proud of you. You
keep doing the great work. Weappreciate your leadership and you're
an inspiration to. To many andmyself included. So God bless you
and thanks for spending sometime with us, Derek.
Thank you, John. Just. Ishould give a big, huge shout out
to my wife, Andrea, who hasput up with me for a long time now,
(52:48):
and yeah, it's. God bless herand. Because there's times when,
you know, the demons do comeback and if it wasn't for her then
and you and people like youand my other support systems. And
there's a lot of people outthere that go out of their way to
make sure that we're takencare of.
Yeah, well, you got to taketime for yourself, you know, especially
(53:11):
when you're so giving, youknow, it's important, and you're.
If you're always on mission,you know, you're not spending a enough
time on yourself, then, youknow, eventually it wears on you.
So if I'd give that advice toanybody. It's okay to take a knee.
(53:32):
You gotta take any face out.Drink some water.
Water. And you can carry onwith the mission.
Okay. Try Von Ranger. Allright, buddy. God bless you. Have
a great day. Thank you again,so much. I know everybody's gonna
love to. To listen to this,and we'll send it out to everybody
(53:54):
once we got her all wrapped up.
All righty.
All right, pal. Have a greatday. Thanks for your time.
Airborne all the way.
All the way. Scouts out.
All right, thank you.
All right, bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
(54:14):
the Wounded Warriors in ActionFoundation and how you can get involved,
please please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
social media, on Facebook,Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you'd like to comment oroffer feedback about our podcast,
or if you have a suggestionfor a future episode, please email
(54:36):
us@podcast@wwiaf.org thank youfor your support and for helping
us all Honor, Connect, andHeal our combat-wounded Purple Heart
Heroes through the power ofthe great outdoors.
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