Morale patch honours PCC work

LS Darcy Quick, Cdr Dale Turetski and LS Moorhouse with their unit’s morale patch. Image courtesy Sharkz Coins

SLt M.X. Déry, MARPAC PA Office ~

Members of the Personnel Coordination Centre (PCC) have a new morale patch to wear on their naval combats. While some morale and operations patches harken back to the First and Second World War in style, featuring missiles, torpedoes and other weapons of war, PCC set out to distinguish themselves.

“Since we fall under MARPAC (Maritime Forces Pacific), we wanted a distinguishing patch,” said Chief Petty Officer First Class Nelson Lemieux, PCC Coxswain. “Something you could see at a distance.”

The call went out to PCC members to come up with something that would fit the bill.

“We had a lot of rough drafts,” said CPO1 Lemieux.

Despite not being a graphic artist, incremental tasker LS Darcy Quick, a naval communicator by trade, was one of the sailors that tried his hand at creating the patch.

“I was on my lunch break and I started going through some ideas in my head,” said LS Quick.

He drew inspiration from the view from his window at DY70, which literally and figuratively looks over the fleet.

“I was thinking how PCC is responsible for assigning  people, making sure jobs get filled all around Canada, all over the world,” explained LS Quick, and how sailors departed and returned as if guided by a lighthouse.

Armed with a good draft, the command team brought it to Sharkz Coins in Esquimalt to refine the concept; a splash of red and a white border made the lighthouse pop. The bottom of the black and white lighthouse has “PCC Pacific” written at its base. The words “domestic” and “international” sit atop and below the lighthouse.

The final printed patch has as sleek modern look and easily identifies the wearer as being part of PCC.

“I’m very proud of the PCC team and the professionalism with which they quietly manage a very complex personnel picture on a day-to-day basis,” said Cdr Dale Turetski, PCC Commanding Officer. “The morale patch will serve two purposes. First, it will re-inforce that PCC is an integral part of the RCN and MARPAC’s ability to sustain international and domestic operations. Second, and most importantly, will be an easily recognizable symbol that will identify those who work tirelessly and are behind that effort.”