4-tour Arkansas Combat Vet Paralyzed on Labor Day

Sergeant First Class (SFC) Jeremy Daniel, U.S. Army, retired, 19D Cavalry Scout is a 42-year-old Arkansas native and combat hero who grew up in Northwest Arkansas. By any definition, Jeremy is a true American hero, and he and his family need your support and donations for the best chance at a successful transition into a new world and life in which Jeremy will navigate in a wheelchair.

He signed up to serve our country. He experienced and overcame the trauma a combat soldier endures during a war and did it for four tours. He was blown up by IEDs and mortars multiple times and suffered a broken back in Afghanistan in 2005 but was not paralyzed. Jeremy returned home to begin his recovery and suffered excruciating back pain for years due to his back injury. As a result, Jeremy was prescribed opioid painkillers, which led to addiction, an inevitable physical side effect of long-term opioid treatment. Jeremy is stronger than most and beat the odds when he successfully quit taking painkillers cold turkey after deciding he would no longer be a slave to a drug. Despite living with chronic pain, Jeremy held his ground, learning to live without painkillers to manage his pain using alternative methods. He fought his way through adversity for years, determined to live the life he wanted to live. Jeremy’s friends and family describe him as a loyal and devoted husband, father, son, brother, and friend who always steps up to help when he sees a need and who would literally give someone the shirt off his back if they needed it.

Jeremy is a fighter, and so is his wife. She is a strong woman, a loving wife, and Jeremy’s number-one advocate. Jeremy Daniel served our country for nearly 20 years before the last mortar broke his back.

He was not paralyzed. After being medically discharged, several years later, on Labor Day 2022, he fell from a tree stand while doing repairs and is now paraplegic with many needs that he can’t financially cover, such as a vehicle that allows him to live work on his farm and remodeling his house to accommodate his wheelchair.

He is a true hero, and on Veterans Day 2022, we ask you to donate to this hero. He is amazing, takes care of all those around him, and wants the ability to continue to do that. Every penny donated to this campaign will go to Jeremy Daniel and his family.

During hours of phone interviews, Jeremy talked about some of what he went through while deployed. The clip below is just a tiny sample of what he described when talking about PTSD and all that goes with being a combat soldier. Take a listen in the video below:

SFC Daniel: Iraq 2003-2004 with 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment; Iraq 2004-2005 3Rd Armored Cavalry Regiment; Afghanistan 2010-2011 1-61 Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; Afghanistan 2013 Headquarters 4th Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Medically retired in May 2016 as a result of injuries incurred in combat. Served 17yrs and 27 days. 2 Bronze Stars, Meritorious Service Medal, 5 Army Commendation Medals, 7 Army Achievement Medals, Combat Action Badge, Air Assault Badge, Pathfinder Badge.

Labor Day 2022 left him a paraplegic at 42 with a wife and two children. His doctors say he will never walk again. How did he become paralyzed? He was repairing a tree stand on his land on Labor Day 2022, and he had a tragic fall from a ladder that changed his life forever and his wife’s. Jeremy is one of those guys who serve, live, and love. He is full of life, and the overwhelming support he has received since his Labor Day injury is proof of the kind of man he is. Nobody has that kind of love and support if they didn’t do an awful lot right over the years. I had the honor of getting to know Jeremy through hours and hours of phone interviews, and in just those conversations, I became one of those people who would take a bullet for him. He’s that amazing.

Too many people give up or grow bitter from adversity. I’m the last to judge, but when you see someone face what Jeremy is facing after he sacrificed so much for not only his own family as the good husband, father, brother, and son that he is, but for our entire country as a U.S. soldier, and you watch them take control and fight like a champion, it’s so inspiring that you can’t help but want to fight for them, and that is how COL Ross and I felt once we began talking to him.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

I talked to Jeremy for many hours over the phone to interview him as he went through a grueling rehabilitation away from home, and the feelings and truths he shared with me will be added to this entry as soon as possible. Admittedly, getting this first draft was a little rushed, but it is Veterans Day, and Jeremy needs your attention, love, support, and appreciation.

Jeremy needed an electric wheelchair before going home from rehab, and to make sure he didn’t wait a day longer than he had to, COL Ross and two veteran volunteers drove about five hours (10 round-trips) to get Jeremy the chair he needed the morning he was allowed to be released from rehab.

The video below is the fateful evening I was in the passenger seat as COL Ross drove down the interstate after a meeting with a different veteran’s family, who lived in the River Valley. Jeremy’s sister-in-law called COL, reaching out for help. We didn’t yet know the bond we would form with Jeremy and his sweet sister-in-law, awesome brother, and amazing wife, but this video is of the moment after we first heard about Jeremy.

The moment after COL Ross and I first heard about Jeremy and his accident.

Let me be very clear before going any further. Jeremy NEEDS your support, but specifically, he needs financial help. Unfortunately, insurance doesn’t cover everything Jeremy needs to live a full life.

DONATE HERE: https://givebutter.com/Q4riVz

Please donate to Jeremy and his family this Veterans Day (or after). Saying “thank you” is a nice gesture. Showing gratitude by sacrificing something so small to give quality of life to someone who sacrificed so much for all of us leaves us feeling good when we lay our head down to sleep at night. When you think about it, donating to Jeremy is being kind to yourself.

Every penny goes to Jeremy! More details will be added, but he desperately needs a handicapped-accessible truck to do what he needs to be himself and live a fulfilling life. Veterans Villages of America has given him a standup wheelchair that allows him to work in his shop doing woodwork and other types of work he doesn’t want to give up. The VA would have never paid for a chair like this. These are only a couple of examples. If you want to have faith in anything, trust Jeremy and the validity of this call to action.

He is an avid hunter. He loves fishing and the outdoors. Why should someone who fought for our freedom be taken from that because they become paralyzed because they can’t afford the equipment to be able? Thanks to the wheelchair V2A gave him, he is in the deer woods today for the first time since his accident. That is something to celebrate. But it isn’t easy. He is just incredibly tenacious and strong-willed. He hurts every day. He hurts even worse because he has no reasonable way to travel. He has children and a wife he wants to be there for as he always was, and he can do everything he sets his mind to if we help him out. Let’s do it!