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

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast. We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you if you're a returning listener. Thanks for coming back.

Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing today, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes an outstanding Purple Heart hero, WWIA Guide and long standing 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 five years with the 1st Battalion Royal New Brunswick Regiment as an infantryman, leaving the Canadian Armed Forces as a Master Corporal before enlisting in the US 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 is married to his Canadian sweetheart Andrea and has four wonderful children. Derek loves to spend his free time traveling, hiking, camping, hunting and fishing with friends and family.

He also holds a BS in Criminal justice from Troy University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

He's worked in the mental health profession for several years as a manager at the Aristook Mental Health center on their Adult Crisis Stabilization Unit in Calais, Maine. This is a fantastic episode that we can't wait for you to hear, so let's join the conversation with John and Derek now.

Hi, I'm John McDan, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation and this is our podcast Honor, Connect, Heal. So today I have with me a great American who I've known for maybe coming up on close to 20 years, I guess I would say.

We were chatting in the, in the pre pre station here and I think it's been about 20 years.

Great American combat wounded veteran, 19 Delta cavalry scout, formerly achieved the rank of sergeant first class, has a Purple Heart and I'm sure a bunch of other scary medals that go along with that. But Derek, Derek Duplisea, thank you for being here on the program and welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, John.

Yeah, so we were, we were chatting in, in the pre station. He said, okay, geez, when did we first meet? And, and why don't you tell, why don't you kick off with, with that story? Your, your memory.

I, I believe I had just retired out of Fort Campbell and my old squadron commander, our Kandarian, gave me a call and he said, hey, how do you feel about 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 fishing pole 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 an organization to take Purple heart combat wounded guys out to do some fishing and hunting. Would you be interested? And I said, sure. And the rest is history.

I think you gave me a call, we talked a little bit and we made plans to head out to Florida for. I think it might have been the first gator hunt.

It was the first.

Yeah, I think it was, it was the second one. There was one before us, but definitely the first year that it was happening.

Yeah, I think the first one I did, 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, that there, there's three, there's three of you and I know all three of you personally because of our, like you mentioned our cander and Colonel Art Kandarian, who at the time was a battalion commander.

Yes.

Commanding A troop. Right. The 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment in the 101st Airborne. Was that a Rista unit? Yes, reconnaissance.

The army was experimenting for a while there, you know, taking with different types of equipment and different kinds, types of configuration and lashups between units. I don't know if they're still doing that or not. But you were with you, you worked with Art. Art was your battalion commander.

And then you had, you know, those three. Vic Dominguez, of course. What a 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 was one of the first guys I, I ever served. It was a. Back when I was doing solo missions, he and I, He He.

We linked up in the Florida Keys. I'll just never forget, you know, watching vic with, you know, 85 of his body with third degree burns, trying to put on a wetsuit.

I it, to this day, it just, it just almost brings me to my, my knees. Anyway, so, yeah, it's crazy how all these things happen.

And so we go, we go on this alligator hunt and I think we, everybody killed alligators, but back then they were kind of small.

Yeah, I think the biggest one we got was six feet. And the one that I harvest was about three feet and some inches.

Uhhuh. Yeah. But still nonetheless, pretty, pretty well. Were all three of you guys, Vic, Brad and yourself, was it.

Were they separate incidences or, or when you got, when you got in wounded, were they separate instances or were they all part of one and the same?

Vic was hurt before Brad and I on a, on a mission and Brad and I were together. He, we were in the same platoon. I was platoon sergeant, he was one of my section sergeants, and we were wounded at the same time.

Yeah. If you don't mind.

And you shared that story with me many years ago and I just remember it having a major impact and if you would be so kind to tell us that story.

Yeah, yeah, no problem. I used to tell my story for a living back when I worked at Raytheon and Tucson. So.

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah. Yeah. It was during our Right Seat ride.

We were getting ready to come home and we were showing the unit that was taken over for us, had their company XO with me. We went into Makadilla. That's where we were, the town that we were charged with patrolling and all that good stuff.

And we 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 tires and the emons and stuff like that. Got a good feel for the area. I was always really big with my guys to always be alert, don't get complacent.

And my biggest thing was you just never know when something might happen. It might happen the first day, it might happen the last day, and it could happen any day in between. So yeah, the patrol went well.

We were coming back, heading back to the FOB and we got to this crucial intersection and the local population had just dispersed very quickly, which was a telltale sign something was up. So I had the patrol halted. We did have an Iraqi platoon with us who were somewhat squared away. They were they were pretty good.

We were in the implementation phase, so we would kind of hold back and supervise as they're doing all the groundwork. So I had them set up a hasty traffic control point search the intersection for any IEDs or suspicious activity. They were conducting the TCP.

They pulled over a vehicle, had two males in it, both had sidearms. They claimed to be Iraqi police. So they've called me over. I told them, you can have your weapons back if I see proof that your Iraqi police.

They said they left their ID cards over at the IP station, which was just a couple blocks away. I said, okay, you go get them and show the proof to me and my guys and we'll let you on your way with your sidearms. And they looked squared away.

They didn't look suspicious or anything like that. So about five minutes had passed and I'm like, okay, something's up, because it shouldn't have been taking them this long.

And that's when my spidey sense went off and said, we've been set up. And right as I thought that everything went black. So I. What had happened.

My gunner, Sergeant Nathan Reinke, he was on top of the gun, on the gun truck, and he had noticed a female in the black traditional dress come walking to. Towards them. And at this time, you know, we.

The whole time we were in Iraq, we weren't directly allowed to interact with the female population because of the cultural stuff that's going on, interaction between American men and Iraqi women. And. But he noticed that she was walking up like she was going to come and ask a question, which was, this happened before.

If a woman approaches us and ask a question, of course we're going to engage. So he was watching her walk up. And then as everything went black for me, this woman blew herself up.

Detonated suicide vest that was on that she was wearing. So I get. I get the next part of the story from the guys that were on the ground from my platoon.

So the blast had detonated about five feet from behind me into my right. She definitely knew who the target was. You go after the person that's given all the. The orders. So I was hit with the blast.

The XO that was with us was hit with the blast. Sergeant Alexander was hit with the bl. Sergeant Kate and Specialist Ramirez were also hit by the blast.

I was just given the order to wrap the patrol up when I was, when this happened, because I knew something was going down. So that's why I had the leadership with me and pretty good coordinated attack on.

On their end as soon as she detonated, they hit us with small arms fire.

So when the next thing I remember is like Saving Private Ryan, when he's storming the beaches and he gets hit by, or the motor round or the interior shell hits by him and knocks him down and it's, it's completely quiet. And that's. I knew something had happened. And I'm, internally, I'm saying, okay, I just got shot by sniper. Something bad happened. 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 and you're deep in the, in, in the stuff, there's no such thing as an atheist.

So I'm sitting there telling God, like, just take care of my family, take care of my children, because at the time I had two small daughters and a preteen, and that's the only thing I could think of. But then like on Saving Private Ryan, that, that big whooshing noise, it just like that.

And all of a sudden I'm hearing AK47 rounds pinging off the asphalt next to my head, next to my body. I just hear chaos. And I'm yelling for Sergeant Reinke. He, he told me the rest of the story after that, he jumped to the ground.

He saw me laying there, came up, pulled me back into under from fire, cover from fire, enemy fire. And he said he 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 it off, he, he said that he, he just couldn't believe what he was seeing. And piece of shrapnel had gone through the back of my helmet and went through my skull and lodged in the top of my brain.

And he said there was, you know, literally a brain bucket. So that was pretty. But I don't remember any of this. I just remember yelling for him to come and get me.

I remember him telling me that everything is going to be fine.

We had our third platoon who had just left on their mission, who on the way to their, wherever they were going to, they heard the blast and then heard the radio traffic and they soon got there to, to provide support to defeat the enemy.

So were you on the ground?

Were you dismounted with all this mounted? Except for the gunners, they were all.

And thank goodness they were up and where they were supposed to be and all that good stuff, because once that blast went off and then they got us all behind cover into a casualty collection point, my team knew exactly what to do. And that was Defeat the enemy. And they returned fire. I could hear the fight going on. I could hear. This is just pure chaos.

I had no sense except for hearing. I couldn't smell, I couldn't see, couldn't taste, couldn't feel anything.

And that's probably for the best considering the injuries that I sustained and I didn't and my men sustained as well. The last thing you want to do or see over there is your own guys beat up pretty bad. So.

Yeah. Wow. How far.

How.

What do you. What do you think the distance was from the female suicide bomber to you when she detonated? When she blew herself off?

Sergeant Reinke said it was about five to six feet.

Oh, my God.

And. Yeah, I'll fast forward a little bit.

When I was recovering at Walter Reed and Bethesda, the naval hospital, I was doing some work for Jaido, the joint IED defeat organization. And my boss just happened to be a caf Scout, too, and we knew each other.

And he went in and looked up the report from Gio, and they said that after they did their forensic investigation, they determined that the female suicide bomber, who was in fact, the first case of a female suicide bomber in Iraq. So I don't know if that's the thing to be proud of. Be the test bed for that.

So that she had the vest on backwards or inside out where the bulk of the blast went into her. I mean, we still got banged up pretty bad, but they said that saved our lives. That whoever.

Whether it was her, whoever put that vest on her screwed it up. And, you know, I'm internally thankful that. That they did.

Inshallah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Wow.

It was. Yeah, I guess it was full of ball bearings.

The shrapnel that I received that periodically was coming out of me the next couple years was mostly asphalt. I'm sure there was pieces. I have two big pieces still above both knees that I don't. It might come out years from now. Who knows? It is.

Does show up on an mri, but it's not metal, so I presume it's either asphalt or bone from suicide bomber. So, yeah, so they get us all in the casualty collection point.

I'm still trying to give orders at this time to Sergeant Reinke and, you know, God bless him, and. And Adam Turcotte, who was a specialist at that time, and two really good, great soldiers.

And they took charge because Sergeant Alexander was out of the fight and the third in command, Sergeant Kate, was taken out of the fight and. And Specialist Kate, he was one of my dismounts. He was. Oh, no, actually he was the truck commander. He was like technically the third in command.

We were all taken out of the fight.

So Sergeant Reinke was just newly promoted to buck sergeant, took control and, and him and Terrcott were both awarded the bronze star for valor and rightfully so.

Because one, one of the other biggest things I always harped on was contingency planning and making sure that my guys, whether you're the brand new private in the platoon or you're the seasoned platoon sergeant or the lieutenant, that everybody's a leader and you might have to take over. And this was a textbook case of that.

And I remember my old platoon Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division, the former seat, John and Wayne Troxell drilled that into us as a young paratrooper and never left me.

And I thank him and I thank God every day that I knew about contingency planning because those two outstanding 19 Delta Cascouts from the 101st Airborne Division took charge and defeated the enemy, got us on the casual collection point and got the medevac there and got us to where we needed to go for follow up care. We all did survive. Sergeant Alexander and I both, we're all evac to Balad, the Air Force trauma center.

It was told 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 any of that stuff.

The next thing I remember is I'm waking up and I don't have a clue what happened still.

I just wake up and there's my memories just of this female looking at me with short curly hair, a little bit older, probably in her 40s, and the distinctive chaplain symbol on her uniform. Of course I start freaking out like 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're embolade, you're receiving treatment. They didn't tell me what happened. She said, I got this iridium phone, satellite phone.

I need you to call somebody back home and tell them that you're okay. And like I wasn't feeling any pain. I just, this is just the only.

They must have brought me out of a coma, medical coma, and then put me right back into it afterwards. But the only number I could remember and I remembered doing this was calling my dad, who lives in New Brunswick, Canada, right beside Maine.

And he had received the call earlier that day that I was severely wounded and that he had to get his passport ready because it wasn't looking good. And he was probably coming to claim his son in Germany, so you can imagine his state of mind. So I, yeah, I, I call.

It's like 2 o' clock in the morning here and where he's at and his heart just stops because he's like, oh, here's the army calling me and let me know my son's passed away. He tells the story. Well, he used to tell it to everybody and he tells the story and he's like, I got this call. My heart stopped.

I knew the army was calling me for give me the bad news. And. And all of a sudden he hears his son's like, hey dad, what's up? Just like it was nothing that happened.

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 Purple Heart and it's definitely not worth it.

But I hadn't received any Purple Heart at that point. But, you know, just common sense kicked in. Like, of course I was hurt, but I still had no idea. And yeah, they put me back in a coma.

The next thing I remember coming off this airplane, probably a C130 or C17 or something, and I'm being rolled off this plane. And then I remember being in this medical room and it's just.

I thought I was dreaming because next thing I know, my old first sergeant from the 82nd Airborne Division sitting there talking to me and I'm like. Because I, I had had no idea. I thought probably I was hallucinating or dreaming, but it was, it really did happen. Sergeant Major Blackwood at.

Roger Blackwood at the time was Ironside 7. So he was sergeant major of 1st Armored Division in Germany.

He had found out from my Sergeant Major Paul that we had been severely wounded and on our way to launch stool. And so he came and escorted me and my men off the plane and was there. And I remember him talking to me and saying, is there anything that you need?

And I said, look, the only thing I need, Sergeant Major, is for you to find Sergeant Alexander and tell him how prayer you are. Because we both served under.

So he was my first sergeant in the 82nd, but he was also our regimental sergeant major with 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment during my first tour in Iraq. And I told him, I said, if you can present his Purple Heart to him, that would be mean the world to him.

So he, he came back and told me he did that and.

Yeah, and then when I was in Bethesda, the naval hospital I remember when I finally got to use the computer, check my email, and I had no idea, but he sent me a picture of him standing next to me. And I'm in. I'm in this bed. It says duplicity on the back of the whiteboard, and it says cranin otomie, or something to do with my brain.

But then he had pinned my Purple heart, unofficial one, on my pillow, and I had no idea that he did that. So. Yeah. So. I mean. Yeah. Yeah. So just, you know, you just never know who you run into, you know, u. S. Army, in the military.

It's a small population, but it's still pretty huge.

That's true.

That was. That was definitely a. A morale booster when I saw that picture. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

The first ground zero, and then the first week or 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 Force base is in the D.C. area.

And I woke up in the hospital in Bethesda, and I had no clue where I was. I had no. I was just completely. I was in this bed. This is the first time I could feel pain.

It wasn't very bad in the beginning, but then, you know, suddenly got worse. But there was a nurse in my. In my room, and I'm like. 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'm like, oh, I'm still in Iraq. She goes, no, you're in Bethesda, Maryland, and you're at the National Naval Medical Center. And I'm like, 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, before you. When you're.

When you're just a line, you know, frontline guy and you get hurt, you don't know anything about the medical system of the United States military. So she was like, oh, no, you have a bad, very bad brain injury, which we call it a severe traumatic brain injury.

And this is the military hospital that treats this. And I'm like, oh. And then she gave me a mirror, and I was looking at it, Kind of had, like, a cone head.

She showed me where the shrapnel went in, and she was telling me how they pulled the shrapnel out and all this other stuff. And that was literally the first time I broke down and cried because I couldn't Move my body. My right arm was in this weird contraption.

My right leg was immobilized because the femur had been snapped in half. And they put a rod in there in Germany. So basically in Germany, they just stabilized all the injuries and then sent me stateside and.

Yeah, just crazy. Wow.

What. Just an amazing story. It.

It's so, it's obviously so tragic, but it's also so inspirational that, you know, that you and your, you know, teammates would have gone through, you know, so much and there's just so, so much, you know, violence and horror in that moment. And here we are almost 20 years later, and, you know, we're friends and, you know, we've spent a fair amount of time together.

And I look at you and I don't see any of that, you know, I mean, I don't see any of that. I never did, you know, of course. You know what I mean?

You look to me like, you know, just a perfectly, you know, well put together in shape, you know, handsome man and, and, and, you know, you don't see any of that. And, and thank. Thank God you, you. That you. You made it through that. And, and your teammates, you know, made it through that.

And I mean, what a testament to. To human, you know, resiliency and it's just incredible. I really appreciate you sharing that story with us, Derek.

It's amazing that you made it through and all that you've done since then. I mean, you've done quite a bit, too. I was just reviewing your dossier, and I remember you telling me the story that before you joined.

Before you joined the United States Army, I mean, you're. You're like a dual. 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 the United States. My.

Okay.

My mom's American from Iowa.

Okay.

And my dad's from Canada.

There it is. But you served in the Canadian military, right? You were an infantryman in the Canadian army. Is that true?

That's absolutely true. I, I was born in Salt Lake City. Six months later, my dad and my mom decided to move to back where he's from in New Brunswick, Canada.

So for the first 20 years, 22 years of my life, I was strictly a Canadian. I knew I had dual citizenship. I had a little thing that said I 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 white Canuck. So, yeah, I was an army cadet for. As a teenager from 12 to 17.

And then I joined the Army Reserves as an infantryman and served in the B Company, 1st Battalion, Royal New Brunswick Regiment, for four years. Most of the time was what we would say in the US Was active reserve or guard. And I supported a lot of cool stuff, did.

Went to a lot of courses and did a couple of deployments within Canada and did some really cool stuff. And I learned. I learned a lot. And I really do believe that was that set the base or the cornerstone for my military career.

The Canadian military is very small, and they rely a lot, the regular force, on the. They rely a lot on the reserves to fill the ranks when they need them.

So I did a few stints with a 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, which was in CFP Gagetown, which I. It's next to where I grew up in New Brunswick. So, yeah, it's. I had a blast, and I just. It was a great time.

And I just decided one day that I had to find something different. And one of my. My. One of my sergeants, he used to.

He was in the old parachute regiment in Canada, and he's like, hey, you're born in the United States. Why don't you go check out the US Military? And I was like, I even thought about it before, and so I said, okay.

So me and a couple of my buddies, we drove to Calais. Well, we're. We kind of live now. Callous is about 10 miles north of Robinson. It's the border town between New Brunswick and Maine.

And at that time, they had army recruiter. They had a Marine recruiter, and I think it was Navy. And I walked into the Marine Corps, and that guy just. I was like, wow.

Everything you ever read or saw about Marines was 100 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, you guys have nice uniforms, but no, this isn't for me. Walked over to the. To the army, and this was a night.

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 Security number.

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 of my career. But I did learn a lot. I. I was successful, but I didn't every minute of three years. I hated it.

So he, he got me qualified and gave me some practice asvab and I scored well. And he told me I had to go up to Presque Isle, Maine to get my Social Security number.

And my mom drove me up there and we got it and went down to MEPs and Portland, Maine. And I was hell bent on getting in my contract infantry with the Ranger option and go right to a Ranger battalion.

But, you know, they were like, oh, we don't have any slots. And I said, what about infantry going into the 82nd Airborne Division? Oh, we don't have any slots. And I'm like. I said, medic. You get any medic jobs?

Oh, no one have any slots. I said, okay, what do you have?

Yeah, this is how they do that. They have, they have a critical shortage and it's called 19 Deltas at the time.

Well, they said. I said, what do you have that's going to the Ranger bat? He goes, cook. And I'm like, no, no, no, I don't care if I'm a Ranger.

I'm not going to be a cook. Or he said, Then he said, airborne option there was 13 Bravo or 11 Delta or 19 Delta. And I was like, oh, told me one was the 13 series was artillery.

And I said, no, I'm doing that either. So I said, tell me about this Calvary Scout. Because in, in the Canadian army, we don't have the word calvary. It's just 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 and showed these 19 Delta Calvary Scouts 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, he actually was a Marine before. Okay. In Vietnam, he was a Vietnam veteran.

And so, so he was a 13 Bang Bang or Red Leg, whatever they call themselves. And so he was telling me about that and, and then showed me that video on 19 Delta.

And I said, oh, can I get guaranteed airborne School and 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg? He goes, well, you just tell that to the guy down in Mets when you go, yeah, right.

So I went down to MEPs and, and make a long story short, I told them exactly what I wanted and they put it in the contract, which in the Canadian armed forces, I mean you, when you go to join, they put you where, wherever they want you. And not necessarily just the army, you're open to the air force and the navy as well. So yeah, so yeah, that's how I. That was.

In September and December I shipped off to Fort Knox, four months of 19 Delta Reconnaissance Specialist training, graduated that in May or April of that year, 94 straight to Fort Benning for airborne school, graduated that and then straight up to Fort Bragg.

And being part of the 82nd and wearing that maroon beret was one of the things I've always wanted to do, whether it was Canadian military or Canadian army or U. S. Army. And so I made that happen.

And one of the cool facts is during when I was in the 82nd, I went down to me or my buddy, I can't really remember, but we went down, we found out where the Canadian army airborne liaison guy was and he went down and said, what are the chances of 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 we went back, talked to our company commander and he said, could I get a slot? And I said, I was like, I don't know.

So three of us were approved to go and we drove up together from Fort Bragg all the way up to Edmonton, Alberta in the dead of winter in March. And I remember we started the jump portion of the jump course and it was St. Patrick's Day because they're giving us green beer and. Yeah.

So long story short, my goal, my, my, one of my biggest thing was always become a Canadian paratrooper and I had to join a thorn army to make it happen. So we did, I did five jumps, one, two jumps off the ramp on a C130, which typically doesn't happen in you in the 82nd. So that was pretty cool.

Jumping with snowshoes and rifles and winter camouflage and all this other stuff. So it was definitely a highlight of my career and I look back on it with great memory and stuff like that. So.

But yeah, wow, that's awesome, man.

And, and then, and then, you know, I want to get to a couple of the things here and I appreciate you being generous with your time, but you, you also are a guide.

You've been through the WWI guide school and you've been, you know, when we have a hard mission, you know, something that's non standard that I am, you know, concerned about, you know, who's the right person to put into this, you know, challenging event or this challenging scenario. That's non standard, meaning it's not our typical type mission.

You're always the first person that comes to mind because if you look at your career and what's happened to you and who you are, you know, at your essence, you've dealt with a lot of adversity, a lot of adversity, a lot of complexity. And so obviously I think you can handle anything. So we've put you on a lot of missions and you've been very, very successful.

So you are serving as a WWI guide, you've been to our guide school, you're out there giving back.

If you don't mind, tell us what that space means to you, the foundation in our work and in, in your own words, what, what kind of impact does that, you know, have on you as a leader in that space?

Well, it kind of all starts back with Art introduced me to you and I think maybe in his, in his head he was like, oh, maybe there's some future plans for Derek here to continue his service, but on a different level with combat wounded veterans.

But after, after that gig, I decided to take some time for myself because I went right from the army and jumped right in like, like most of us think we're invincible. And at this time time I was like, whoa, I need to slow down, I need some time to readjust, figure things out.

I had, right after I got hurt, I graduated with my bachelor's degree, then right after I retired, got my master's degree and I was trying to figure things out.

Like it's pretty hard when you go from a high speed, fast paced job as, you know, a line unit guy, front line cav scout, airborne, all that aerosol, and then sit at a desk or you know, I wasn't really sitting at a desk, but it wasn't the same type of job.

And I was, or I don't know if I have the dates right, but the story's the same. But my question was like, 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, you know, all the, these outstanding guys that live and breathe hunting and fishing and I'm a guy that I was doing it as just like a hobby at best. And your exact words were because you're every leadership and no, that meant a lot to me.

The word empowerment comes in and you made an old crusty 19 Delta combat wounded guy feel on top of the world. So we had the discussion and you 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 say guys because they were all guys at that time. And yeah, it was very empowering. It still is empowering.

I know I took some time off this year to get myself back into a good mental state and stuff that happened. My mother passing away and a whole bunch of other. And my grandson being born and.

But yeah, you, you guys sent me, I think right after I finished guy school, I went up to Winnipeg, Canada to. Or is actually about two or three hours north of Winnipeg to do a one off black bear hunt with a young wounded marine.

And wow, that was quite the, the adventure. And we were there for a week and we, and we harvested that humongous bear the first day.

So we were just kind of like deckhands the rest of the time and we had, we had a blast. And yeah, ever since then, all the opportunities, I was kind of focused more on fishing. And then I asked to do some more hunting type stuff.

And from muskie to black bear to.

You name it in a turkey hunt.

I've done them all. Shock the one in Virginia.

Shotgun or running dogs after deer and shooting it with a shotgun while this deer, I'm like, there's no way I'm gonna be able to do that. And this last day of the hunt, I hear the dogs coming and I see this, this buck bounding towards me. I'm like, there is.

And I, you know, I have limitations on my right arm. And to this day I'm like, I don't know how I killed that buck, but it went down. And yeah, it was a nice little, nice buck. So yeah, yeah.

And then the black bear hunts here in New Hampshire, I've done that a couple times and I'm still the record holder for the biggest black bear there. It's all just luck. My goal is always have the, the, the heroes try to harvest it.

But when they put you out there and you're by yourself and you have three bears coming to your, to your stand and then the big one finally comes in, I mean, I had to take it. So.

Yeah, well, you know, and the other thing that's amazing is now you're working in the mental health arena, aren't you? Tell us a little bit about that. I mean this is, you got an incredible story, man. You've just. It's crazy.

Yeah. So we moved to Maine and where we live in Maine is pretty, well, like everywhere in Maine. It's pretty rural.

There's not much job opportunities like the jobs I held previously after I retired from the Army. So I went to work when I first got here for a place called Aroostook Mental Health Center. At that time I was a children's crisis counselor.

So kids from 5 years old to 17 that are going through any type of mental health crisis in Maine, if they came to our agency that we would provide mental health services and they could be there from. Usually it's a crisis stabilization unit, so three to five days, but sometimes that goes in two months. So that was challenging.

Dealing with children that have a whole host of anything from maybe they just had a PTSD from that or neglect or even worse. So we got to see the whole gambit. I that for about half a year.

Then I took the manager position that oversaw the kids crisis unit and the kids residential unit. I did that for another six months and then I said, okay, I need a break from this.

I don't, I, I think I've retired about six times since I retired from the Army. So I, and I, I take some time, then I get bored and I'm like, okay, I got to go back to work.

So presently I went back to work for AMHC and about two years ago and now I'm the manager for their adult crisis stabilization unit. So adults that are going through any type of mental health crisis, whether it be, I mean the big three are depression, anxiety and ptsd.

But it can go into schizoaffective disorder, anything mental health related. So, and usually it's co occurring with substance use and stuff like that.

So it's, it's very rewarding job when you have people come in and then you see the difference we're making. Sometimes they're in and out, sometimes they're there for a little bit longer. But I manage a team of 13 counselors.

There's and one therapist and I'm the manager 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 number one crisis unit when it comes to filling our beds.

We make our monthly bonus every month. And that's all attributed to my military leadership and what I learned and setting standards and explaining the standards.

I don't lead like people think I'm retired. Sometimes I do come across as retired NCO only when I need to.

Sometimes you have to.

It's, you know, it's. It's challenging sometimes. It's a whole different culture between civilian world and. But there is a happy medium in there.

I think I found it so well, you know.

Super proud of you, man. I mean, I. Just.

The one thing that just jumps out at me every time, you know, I hear your story, and I haven't heard it, it's evolved considerably since the last time we chatted. But it's service. There's one. The one word that I could say that sums you up. It's just service.

I mean, you have this incredible thing inside of you that wants to help other people and serve your countries, plural, and humanity. It's amazing, man. I mean, you. You're quite an individual, buddy. And it's an honor to know you.

And I certainly do appreciate all that you've done for our country, the foundation, and just all the lives that you touch throughout the day. It's quite impressive, and I appreciate you sharing your time with us. I also understand that you recently became a grandfather, right?

Yep. Just over almost three weeks ago, my youngest daughter gave birth to a healthy baby boy. His name is Grayson Lauren Brian Cota.

And I just saw him a couple days ago, and, yeah, that's a great feeling. It's kind of a weird feeling. I'm, like, old now, so. But, yeah, it was just to hold them and.

And, yeah, and I can't wait to spoil them because I remember my grandparents, and, you know, they spoiled me rotten, but they also were a huge influence on who I became as a. As a person. And now I'm gonna. This is what gets me teared up now. So. I miss my grandmother more than anybody.

My grandfather, who served in the same unit I did in the Canadian army, and he was wounded overseas. And weird fact, we have the exact same injury in our right arm. He couldn't. Yeah.

Wow.

Just wild. And I could have sworn I saw him when I was in the hospital, but maybe that was the good they gave me. But.

Yeah, and there's something special about all of it, buddy. That's crazy. Well, I'll give you the last whack at the pinata. If you've got anything else you'd like to share with us.

I will say in closing, before I turn the mic back over to you, thanks again for everything that you've done. That's an incredible story, man, and I appreciate you sharing it.

I'm sure that our listening audience will really enjoy hearing your story as well, but thank you. So, any saved rounds you got there, Scout?

Yeah, I just want to give a big shout out to you and Karina and David and the rest of the crew up there. You guys, anything I need, you guys have sent me or given to me. It's cool getting a little gifts every now and then.

Another big shout out to my fellow Purple heart hero here in Maine, Dan and his wife Katie and their son Hunter.

They're great.

Great. I haven't seen them lately, but I still keep in contact with them and I hope they listen to this and know that they're always in my. In my heart.

So it's good to have Dan next to where I. If I do need. He did. We did go on event a couple years ago. We went to Maryland with. And did some duck and. And stuff and goose and we harvest.

Harvest some of that stuff. And that was awesome. I'm glad he. We went together. So we had a great time. Yeah, thanks. Great. Thanks.

Everything you've done for me, John, from the bottom, I know I've thanked you a billion times and I'll probably thank you a billion more times. If it wasn't for you could have been ended up a different person, so.

Well, I. I just don't know what to say about that, but thanks for saying that. I. I guess we'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, a shining star, it just. It just. It's so humbling, you know, to. To. To see how far you've come given so much adversity. And we're all very, very proud of you.

You keep doing the great work. We appreciate your leadership and you're an inspiration to. To many and myself included.

So God bless you and thanks for spending some time with us, Derek.

Thank you, John. Just. I should give a big, huge shout out to my wife, Andrea, who has put up with me for a long time now, and yeah, it's. God bless her and.

Because there's times when, you know, the demons do come back and if it wasn't for her then and you and people like you and my other support systems. And there's a lot of people out there that go out of their way to make sure that we're taken care of.

Yeah, well, you got to take time for yourself, you know, especially when you're so giving, you know, it's important, and you're. If you're always on mission, you know, you're not spending a enough time on yourself, then, you know, eventually it wears on you.

So if I'd give that advice to anybody. It's okay to take a knee.

You gotta take any face out. Drink some water.

Water. And you can carry on with the mission.

Okay. Try Von Ranger. All right, 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 once we got her all wrapped up.

All righty.

All right, pal. Have a great day. 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 the WWIA podcast.

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