Joe D’Arcy started his most recent first day on the job March 1, but it comes in his 42nd year of being in and around the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I signed the dotted line December 13, 1981, but 40-plus years is not easy to condense – especially when you bounce around quite a bit and have been fortunate enough to do other things,” D’Arcy says.
He’s excited to pack all that into his new role as Atlantic coordinator for the Veterans Transition Network. While he’s still in his day job as a resource analysis and compliance services officer with 14 Wing Greenwood’s Wing Comptroller, he expects to spend a number of hours a week promoting the VTN, organizing programs and reaching out to military and RCMP veterans transitioning from service to civilian life.
“I didn’t know about VTN – the visibility is not there. I’d been doing my own work for three years, and I took their five-day transition skills course. It was amazing, and I wanted more. I did a second course, and it was life-changing.”
D’Arcy spent many years not “doing the work” of recognizing and dealing with his mental health after 22 years in the military. The VTN program and the people he’s met have helped him live with “hurt and life struggles – and everyone has them.
“I didn’t reach out to get help until about four years ago. I was two different people. I didn’t know I had issues, but my wife knew I was different.”
D’Arcy grew up just outside Halifax in Harrietsfield, and went to school and ran with buddies in Spryfield. He admits he “didn’t like school,” and may have been a little obstinate when talking to teachers and guidance counsellors, often doing the opposite of what they told him they expected of him. He worked a summer after high school in construction, not making a lot of money or any real plans. His father worked at the port grain elevators, and his grandfather was a stevedore: neither wanted to see D’Arcy follow their footsteps.
“I had long blond hair and I came home one day after a few beer and went to my room. My Dad said, ‘Why don’t you look at the military?’ I pointed at my hair: ‘No way I’m cutting my hair for anyone!’ In September, I was signing on the dotted line.”
D’Arcy chose a finance trade: he knew it was a short training course, and he’d done pretty well in a business-focused course in high school. In January 1982, he was at basic training in Cornwallis.
“I weighed 116 pounds, and my street smarts helped me more through the course when I didn’t know something or I was scared. I realized, ‘it’s just another head game,’ so I figured out dress and deportment, inspection – that all just fit for me. Physically, I loved to be pushed. I signed, and that’s what I was doing.”
After basic, he was off to Borden for three months of trade training, and his first posting was to CFB Gagetown in the summer of 1982. A week one sports day began his career-long involvement in military sports (and might have contributed to more than a few of the instances he was called to a supervisor’s office…).
“I got into some things,” D’Arcy says, who saw sports play as a bigger part of the military philosophy of commitment to the team. “I played sports like they were paying me; matter of fact, they were!”
Two years into Gagetown, and he’d opened a pay office for the base’s 2 Royal Canadian Regiment personnel; then came a Navy posting to the HMCS Iroquois out of Halifax.
“I’d never been to sea, never considered it – it was a long two years. They had their moments, but I’ve never been the same!”
That posting included his first foreign port call, sailing into New York City as the Statue of Liberty was unveiled after a long refurbishment and a six-plus-three-month NATO tour. It also included a divorce, ending a two-year marriage. With a posting to the Annapolis back in Halifax, he called his high school sweetheart, Helen: they married (and are now into year 33) as he accepted a four-year posting to Washington, and they “absolutely loved it – the opportunities, our first born arrived. It was amazing.”
On their return to Canada, the family posted to Petawawa, and D’Arcy was quickly added to the Operation Harmony NATO deployment to “Split Croatia.
“Early on, things were quiet. We’d take the pay out to the operational posts, always with mail, and we’d be good to go.”
One day, at a delayed checkpoint, D’Arcy and his partner were directed to an alternate route.
“We had no map, and things went south. The goat trail roads, mine signs everywhere, huge puddles, sheep, and we couldn’t turn around or back up.”
The men spent “three or four hours of stress – just intense,” picking their way to a safe route home.
“I came back different, and I never realized what that drive did. It was an injury, an operational stress injury of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
D’Arcy came home, back at 1 RCR, then Yellowknife, then 413 Squadron here at 14 Wing in 1999. In 2002, he moved to 26 Canadian Forces Health Services, from where he released as a sergeant in 2003 to start a 20-year-and-counting career in civilian finance support work.
“Been there, done that,” D’Arcy says. “With the Veterans Transition Network, I want military members and veterans to know I am here as a resource, a contact for a very beneficial organization that helps many get the help the need for their own mental health struggles.
“It’s funny – I’ve always thought maybe I should have a collar. People I don’t know well, they feel comfortable talking to me. I am a good fit for this job – this is me.”
The Veterans Transition Network is the only Canadian charity delivering free mental health services specifically for Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP veterans. Since 1998, VTN has helped over 1,500 veterans in nine provinces. Courses are delivered by specially trained psychologists and counsellors, and include direct peer support from veteran paraprofessionals who have graduated from previous programs. Confidentiality and independence from the CAF and RCMP are integral.
Programs focus on building skills in communication, connection, self-maintenance and future planning.
Transition Skills Course – a five-day, in-person, retreat-based workshop assists with transition skills as the first step any interested veteran would attend.
Veterans Transition Program – three weekends over two months, as the VTN team works with you to build skills and help plan for reaching the life you want to live.
National Para Support Team – a veteran-to-veteran peer support service via phone or secure video-chat. VTN clinicians lead training and coaching for peer supporters.
Vtncanada.org
1-844-CDN-VETS (236-8387)
Facebook @ VTNCanada
Reach Joe D’Arcy here in Greenwood at 902-824-0038, or joe.d’arcy@vtncanada.org
