A critically injured Navy SEAL explains why wounded warriors don’t want your pity

After a group of Navy SEALs walked into an ambush near Fallujah, Iraq, their medic was the first one to go down.

When a Navy SEAL tried to pull him to safety, he too was wounded. Jason Redman was next. He first was struck in the arm, an injury that he initially believed blew the limb off. His two injured comrades were now huddled behind a huge tractor tire, and a weakened Redman figured his best chance at survival was to join them.

As the enemy fire continued, Redman tried to move behind the tire. Before he made it there, a round hit Redman on the side of his head. It severely damaged his face, including blasting off his nose, taking out his right cheekbone, and pulverizing his jaw.

“The guys saw me and thought I was dead,” Redman said.

Redman somehow survived the events of September 13, 2007. From the time he was 15 years old, he always wanted to be a Navy SEAL. Much of his identity was tied into belonging to one of the U.S. military’s elite Special Operations forces. Now what was his life going to look like?

The Wrong Call During a Mission

Redman recounted that harrowing scene for the LADbible Stories “Minutes With” YouTube series. Redman is on-screen for the entire 32 minutes, with the interviewer occasionally asking questions off camera. It is raw, honest, and ultimately inspiring as Redman describes his journey.

He relates how gung-ho he was to become a Navy SEAL. Early on during training, he was in a cafeteria one day when he spotted an actual SEAL. Redman excitedly approached the warrior, who was eating his meal, and asked for any helpful advice.

“Yeah, don’t quit. Beat it,” the SEAL told Redman, who chuckled at the memory.

Redman didn’t quit. He survived training, became a SEAL, and was with his team in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. While deployed there, Redman made a very risky decision, potentially jeopardizing a key mission and the lives of himself and others. Although he later admitted he was wrong, he believed he made the correct call in the moment.

That only made matters worse, Redman told LADbible Stories.

Told his commanding officer would determine his punishment tomorrow, Redman was devastated. He thought his SEAL career was over, and he was so despondent that he came close to killing himself that night. He decided against it after seeing a picture of his wife and three young children perched onto a nearby desk. A subsequent conversation with a military chaplain also helped give Redman a new perspective on his situation.

Redman didn’t lose his trident after all. He survived to fight another day, then Iraq happened.

A Note from “the Management”

Critically wounded, Redman went from medical facilities in Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Then it was on to Bethesda, Maryland, to continue his recovery and rehabilitation.

It took Redman, who required 37 surgeries, weeks to muster the courage to look at himself in a mirror. Redman described to LADbible Stories that he felt like a monster. He was at a low point when he was Bethesda, sharing a room with a young Army soldier battling a traumatic brain injury.

One day, as a nurse tended to Redman, others were in the room talking amongst themselves. As they spoke, Redman heard one of them exclaim: “Man, what a shame. This is so sad.”

Those words hit Redman with such force that they totally refocused his mindset. He grabbed a pen and wrote out a note on an orange sheet of paper. His wife pinned it to his hospital room’s door. Addressed to anyone entering the room, it read:

“If you are coming into this room with sorrow or to feel sorry for my wounds, go elsewhere. The wounds I received, I got in a job I love, doing it for people I love, supporting the freedom of a country I deeply love. I am incredibly tough and will make a full recovery. What is full? That is the absolute utmost physically my body has the ability to recover. Then I will push that about 20% further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you are about to enter is a room full of fun, optimism, and intense rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere.”

Redman ended the note with “From: The Management.”

The Power of Resilience

Redman’s sign went viral. That didn’t matter as much to him as the message it conveyed.

“Everyone of us is going to be hit by life ambushes,” Redman said during the LADbible Stories interview. “Every one of us is going to struggle. It’s part of being human, man. There’s going to be loss, and there’s going to be failure, and there’s going to be setbacks. People are going to do terrible things to us.

“But the greatest gift you have as a human and the ability to lead yourself and your ability to overcome is, you have a choice.”

That autonomy ultimately saved Redman. Even in our darkest moments, those choices exist, Redman said. So much of what happens to us is beyond our control. How we respond to our particular circumstances is not.

It took Redman years to recover from his injuries, but he never surrendered. He went on to retire from the Navy SEALs in 2013 and founded a nonprofit organization, Wounded Wear, that supports those injured while serving our country. He also is a motivational speaker, author, and—at the time of the interview—about to become a first-time grandfather.

None of that was possible if he gave up.

“We owe it to the people who are gone to be the best version of [ourselves],” Redman said. “I got a second chance, and so many people don’t get that…. I am grateful every day that I survived.”

For Redman’s full interview with LADbible Stories, click on the link here.

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