Navy medic Darren Cole sentenced for drug dealing 23 year old Able Seaman Medic Darren Cole. NAVY medic Darren Andrew Cole was a decorated member of Australia's armed forces - but the horrors he witnessed in the Sea King helicopter crash caused his life to spiral into drug-dealing and chaos. Cole, a former medical orderly for the Royal Australian Navy, was last week sentenced to more than four years' jail in the Downing Centre District Court after he admitted to his role in an interstate drug operation. Cole, 32, of Roselands, attempted to smuggle 25 litres of GHB from Victoria to NSW but was caught by police who tapped his phone. He was also caught with more than 50g of ice and offered to supply 114g of the drug, the court heard. The jail term continued the tragic fall from grace for Cole, who was once a medal-wearing leading seaman for the Navy. He has now racked up a string of jail sentences for drugs and weapons offences that were fuelled by his own addiction to ice. In sentencing the former seaman, Acting Judge Geoff Graham accepted that Cole used ice as a "self-medicating" treatment to combat the post-traumatic stress disorder he developed from the horrors he saw while working for the Navy. His specialist qualification in hyperbaric medicine saw him included in a rescue team sent to Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. In April 2005, he was part of the team that responded to the Sea King helicopter crash on Nias island, off the coast of Sumatra, in which nine friends and colleagues were killed. The court heard the experience resulted in Cole being diagnosed with PTSD. He told the court he "self-medicated" with ice to ease the symptoms and that he received little support and counselling from the Navy before he was honourably discharged in 2006. The smell of burnt fuel and bodies was too much. I became depressed and everything that happened with the helicopter and the tsunami hit me like a tonne of bricks. Cole told the court he took part in a brief Navy medical consultation after the incident. He referred to it as a "tick and flick" and was told he had "adjustment disorder." I was angry and fed up with the Navy and wanted to move on. He told the court he left the HMAS Penguin and returned to Holsworthy Army Barracks where he worked in counter terrorism. In April 2012, he was sentenced for supplying drugs and possessing an illegal weapon. In another court matter earlier this year, the judge said Cole had "suffered a debilitating psychological injury that has not been adequately treated by those who have the means and opportunity to do so." A Defence official there were established programs to treat mental illnesses.