Afghan vet and former Powell River cadet finds healing and new ways to serve here at home

Gord Hoffman, 37, was born in the old hospital and grew up in Powell River – as a teen, he was an avid participant in the local Army Cadet program. By 17 he had applied to the Army, and by 19, he was in.

Gord’s dad was a truck driver, so his first job in the service – as a Mobile Support Equipment Operator – was a natural fit (basically, a truck driver.) In 2004, following basic and trade training, he was posted to 1 Service Battalion – “Western Canada’s mothership for Combat Service Support,” Gord explained.

His high school sweetheart joined him in Edmonton in 2005, they were married later that year and in short order started their family in 2007.

Gord was deployed twice to Afghanistan, once in 2008, where he saw combat in Kandahar, and once in 2013/2014 in support of the Afghan training mission, Op ATTENTION, and the Mission Closure Team. By 2015, he was made Transportation Chief Dispatcher in Wainwright, Alberta.

THE END OF AN ERA: After starting out 25 years earlier in the Powell River Army Cadets, this is Warrant Officer Gordon Hoffman’s retirement photo, in 2019.

“That’s where everything caught up with me,” he recalled. On his 2008 tour, “some pretty atrocious stuff happened” in combat and in the aftermath, he said. Between 2016 and 2017, he was hospitalized three times for suicide attempts, stemming from his post-traumatic stress and anxiety. “I lived with it for eight years before I asked for help.”

Then in 2018, he was “blindsided” when informed that he was being medically released from the service. He appealed and lost. “I still saw myself as a healthy individual,” he said. “Like, I can still do stuff. But the reality is, if a soldier can’t carry a weapon, he can’t be a soldier. It makes perfect sense… but not when you’re in it. Being in the army was my whole identity. I wore the flag on my shoulder proudly every day since I was 19.”

Gord recognizes that he was lucky to have a support team: a mental health team, a peer support team, and, of course, his family. Through the Vocational Rehabilitation Program for Serving Members (VRPSM), he was afforded the opportunity to learn front-line intervention through a position in Client Services at Sunshine Coast Health Centre, initially funded by the Canadian Armed Forces through the VRPSM, andlater in a paid capacity as that same department’s supervisor.

REMEMBERING THIS: Matt Staley, right, moved to qathet after getting help at Sunshine Coast Health Centre for the trauma he experienced overseas.

He met Matt Staley at Sunshine Coast Health Centre, when Matt was a client and he was providing front-line intervention for the daily challenges in the client’s lives.

“I’m serving my community now in addictions and mental health,” Gord explained, noting that after leaving SCHC to attend graduate studies through Royal Roads University, he now works with Youth & Family Powell River, facilitating a men’s support group and across other program areas that provide family support services.

Gord has four children, aged 15, 12, 6 and 3 – and one on the way. His oldest two are in Cadets, as he was at their age. He and his high school sweetheart are still married.