With 18 years of decorated service to this nation, LTC Joy Thomas became a whistleblower after refusing to alter the findings and recommendations of a suicide investigation that painted the Command negatively.

In October of the same year, he deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), where he witnessed and attempted to treat, but was unallowed to assist, a disemboweled 5-year-old boy who died minutes later.

SFC William Lewis enlisted in the Army in 2006 as an infantryman, hoping to become a Master Sergeant (MSG) like his grandfather. He deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2008 with the 56th Stryker Brigade. When he returned home, he had trouble adjusting to civilian life, facing unemployment, heavy alcohol use, and untreated PTSD.

Sergeant First Class Emil Wojcik served with the United States Army Special Forces, 10th Mountain Group. He became a Green Beret in 2005, and from that date to 2013, he deployed more than a dozen times to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

When Paul Sasse joined the Army in 1999 at age 19, he was fulfilling a lifelong aspiration and continuing a family tradition--his stepfather had reached the rank of Sergeant Major.

In 2004 he was deployed to Afghanistan as an Infantryman. In 2006 he joined the First Special Forces Group and deployed to Iraq in 2007. On May 9, 2007, Sasse’s Humvee was hit, and he was knocked unconscious, suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that was later diagnosed.

Staff Sergeant Eric James served two tours as a Sniper with the United States Army in Iraq. In 2011, he was pulled over and arrested on a drunk-driving charge. That was the end-marker. Following his last deployment, he experienced serious readjustment issues stemming from the combat-related psychological trauma he sustained in Iraq.

Soon thereafter, he deployed to Iraq. On August 22, 2007, his vehicle was hit by an EFP, ramming metal through his knee and face. He pulled his vehicle off the road, engaged the enemy, and was shot. Severely wounded, he was evacuated. He was so deformed that his wife didn’t recognize him, and his recovery was long and painful. He was kept in an induced coma for ten weeks, and his prognosis was not good—the presiding physician predicted he would be a vegetable.