DVIDS – News – Newport News police officer continues family legacy by joining the military to become a nurse

JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. (Oct. 25, 2023) – A local Newport News police officer made the decision to join a long family legacy of military service by recently enlisting in the Army to receive specialist training in practical nursing care.

Officer Darius Davis, a 28-year-old who has been with the Newport Newport Police Department since 2017, terminated his duties as a police officer in early August and left for Army basic training on August 14, 2023 to begin his military career with an eye toward future service, either as an enlisted leader or as an officer.

“I’m still deciding if I want to do all of this and then go to OCS (Officer Candidate School), or if I want to stay enlisted,” Davis said. “There are so many opportunities there. I even considered Airborne, Air Assault, or Ranger School, depending on the leadership courses offered.

The lifelong Hampton Roads area resident overcame some of his life’s early challenges before becoming a police officer.

“I was born in Virginia Beach to a single mother and raised in Hampton Roads, a pretty rough part of town,” Davis said. “But we finally made it to Chesapeake where I graduated from high school.”

Davis is proud to continue a legacy of service within his family that dates back to his great-grandfather.

“My great-grandfather, when he came from Greece, served in the United States Navy for 24 years and was a civil servant for another 20 years,” Davis said. “He was an aircraft mechanic and worked his way up to Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, before becoming a chaplain. He did a lot of things.

Davis said many other members of his family served, including his grandfather’s siblings, who came from Puerto Rico and all joined the Marines. Many uncles and aunts also served in various branches of the service. But one of them influenced his choice to join the army.

“My aunt on my father’s side was in the military, serving in intelligence,” Davis said. “She was at the Pentagon on 9/11 during the terrorist attacks. She helped people escape, even after being injured, and had to medically retire due to her injuries. She continued in the intelligence field as a civilian working with other U.S. government agencies. She was the main influence on me joining the military and thanks to her, I first thought about going the intelligence route. But I decided to go into the medical field.

After graduating from Indian River High School in Chesapeake, Davis faced a family challenge that required him to jump right to work keeping food on the table and taking care of his mother. He held jobs over time as a mechanic, a clerk at an auto parts store, and a pet nutrition specialist at a pet supply store.

“My mother had a serious health issue, so I had to do a few odd jobs here and there to take care of her and pay the bills,” Davis said. “We finally hit a rough patch and moved to Newport News in 2017, and I’ve been here ever since.”

According to Davis, he earned criminal justice credits from the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Department and decided to transfer them to the Newport News Police Academy where he earned DCJS certification and certification in the state of Virginia for l ‘law application.

“I also took many FBI courses, not only for crisis negotiations, but also for law enforcement certification,” Davis said.

After four years of service with the Newport News Police Department, Davis was selected to become a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team as a negotiator, based on an actual rescue in which he received a prize.

“In 2019, a young woman was on the James River Bridge, threatening to jump off the bridge,” Davis said. “I went over there and talked to her for 45 minutes and ended up getting her off the bridge. I received a life-saving reward for my efforts. I was just doing my best and talking to someone like they were a human, and that experience kind of led me to the SWAT team as a negotiator.

So how can a police officer assigned to special weapons and tactics become interested in the medical and nursing field?

“I became interested in the medical side after leading security at Riverside Health System,” Davis said. “After a while, I started to think that since my mother is a forensic pathologist and my sister was going to school to become a trauma surgeon, maybe I should do something in that field. I have a lot of tactical combat medicine training and actual practice under my belt, so maybe it’s for me.

Davis began his nursing studies about three years ago at Thomas Nelson Community College, now called Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC), while he was still a police officer.

“I was doing this while I was a police officer and for two years I was working with Riverside, Old Dominion University and VPCC, doing various things for the RN program,” Davis said. “I ended up making it to the last two semesters of my RN program.”

Davis was about to graduate from nursing school when life threw more challenges at her and her family.

“My wife and I lost a baby to miscarriage, so I had to sit down and prioritize my marriage,” Davis said. “I was doing about 110 hours of school a week on top of being a cop. It just didn’t work.

Given the challenges life threw at him and his family history of military service, it was natural for him to consider the option of military service.

“The military was my first choice once I realized I was really going to join it,” Davis said. “The Army had by far more things I wanted to do than the other branches. There are a lot more opportunities for me to advance and a lot more opportunities to make this a career in the military.

Davis also felt that his Army recruiter was much more genuine and honest than some other services.

“Ironically, I was going to sign a contract for PSYOPS (Psychological Operations – now called Military Information Support Operations), but my recruiter and a sergeant from MEPS (Military Input Processing Station) convinced me to do nursing,” Davis said. “They said it would be a better choice given where I was in my life, and I agreed.”

When asked how he felt about leaving for basic training, his thoughts were with his fellow officers and family.

“It’s bittersweet because everyone at Newport News PD is my family,” Davis said. “Everyone from the dispatchers to the people at my station to the SWAT team members, you feel this unbreakable bond, like what people experience during military service. And of course, it will be difficult to be away from my wife and son during this extended training period. But we committed together to becoming an Army family!

Asked about his long-term goals and where he saw himself in the next five years, Davis focused more on the short term.

“At this point, my first goal is to pass the basics, and my next goal is to pass AIT (Advanced Individual Training),” Davis said. “After that, my next goal is to get familiar with my first unit and start working, then I will decide the next steps from there.”

Davis is scheduled to graduate from basic training on Oct. 27, 2023, and will then move on to a 52-week hands-on nursing course for advanced individual training at the Army Medical Center of Excellence, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.