EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Staff Sgt. Brent Young aimed for the bulls-eye at the 2018 Department of Defense Warrior Games and won a gold and a silver medal in archery competition.
The 96th Security Forces Squadron member also netted a silver medal in wheelchair basketball at the games, held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 1-9.
“It was an honor to represent my team and my base,” said the double-threat competitor. “Walking away with some hardware was also pretty cool.”
It hasn’t always been stacks of wins for Young.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder n 2016, and traumatic brain disorder in 2018. He said the events that led to the conditions began in 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Young’s first life-altering ordeal happened on a deployment to Iraq, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad.
“It was nicknamed ‘Mortar-itaville’ because it rained mortars there every day,” he said of Logistics Support Area Anaconda, later renamed Balad Air Base.
One day, his quick response force team responded to a tent hit by a mortar.
“When we arrived, it was complete devastation.” the Airman said. “Everyone was killed.”
In that moment, Young said he realized it wasn’t if he was going to be hit by a mortar, but when.
He survived that tour of duty. In 2004, he deployed back to Iraq, to a detention facility near the Kuwait-Iraq border. It was there he experienced what he called ‘the hardest night’ of any of his six deployments.
While transporting about 150 detainees to Abu Ghraib prison, usually an eight-hour trip, Young’s convoy was hit by small-arms fire and improvised explosive devices.
As one of the convoy trucks stopped for a tire repair, Young’s truck moved forward to find IEDs. He saw another team’s truck hit by an IED in the middle of a fire fight.
“It was the team’s last truck,” said Young, a trained sniper. “They were on a bridge. We couldn’t get to them in our truck, so I asked permission to go on foot.”
He tried to provide first aid to one of the injured defenders, but due to mistakes Young made, the man later died.
“I’m haunted by that experience and seeing my brothers and sisters get killed over there,” the staff sergeant said.
More traumatic events during his career included a brain injury caused by indirect hits from two IEDs. He also was knocked unconscious several times while teaching hand-to-hand combat techniques.
In addition, he helped recover bodies from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash in 2015, and was the first responder to a suicide here.
The incidents took their toll on Young. Yet, he didn’t realize he needed help. He coped by becoming introverted.
When the realization finally sank in, he was reluctant to get it.
“PTSD has such a negative stigma, I didn’t want to be labeled as having it,” Young said. “And I didn’t know what TBI was.”
The turning point came in 2016, when his migraine headaches, anger issues and alcohol abuse spiraled in to a DUI.
“In a way, the DUI was a blessing in disguise,” he said. “If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know if my recovery would be where it is today.”
Young was sent to a neuro clinic, where brain damage to his frontal lobe and memory loss was discovered.
During his treatment in 2017, Young became interested in the Warrior Games.
“I volunteered to help in the Warriors’ training that year,” he said of the Eglin event. “I had no idea what it was at first.”
He liked it so much, he joined the training and enrolled in the program the following week.
A year later, Young made the team and triumphed at the Warrior Games, where he found shooting arrows ‘therapeutic.’
“It’s just you and the target,” the Midland, Michigan native said. “I used to bow hunt as a kid, but never for precision archery. It’s calming to sight a target and take aim.”
Young also found solace in getting involved in activities that provide him temporary reality breaks. Among them, he joined a local dive charter with fellow wounded warriors.
“In the water, I can leave it all behind for a while,” he said.
Young’s service dog, Cairo, donated to him in May 2017 by a private trainer, keeps him active.
“It’s easy to become a prisoner at home, with all my thoughts and memories of the past, along with anger,” he said. “She gave me a reason to get out of the house again.”
As he deals with the ‘dark days’ in his 20-year Air Force career, inner peace and balance are now his biggest targets.
“The more I talk about it and find cool things to do, the easier it is to get through the process,” he said.