My name is Bryant Jacobs. I’m 42 years old and the outdoors is one of my biggest passions in life. I love to hunt, fish, take my side by side out, and hang out with my bride and two daughters. Over the last several years I’ve become more and more of a family man. If I can’t be outside doing something I like to chill on the couch with my bride and watch show. My daughters are older and have jobs so we don’t see them a whole lot. We have two amazing puppies as well. One is a 10 year old shitzu and we also have my service dog. He is a two-year-old golden retriever. I worked with him for over a year with an organization called 4 Paws For Patriots training him to be my service dog.

When I was in high school my goal was to either go to college or join the military.  I decided to go the college route. After graduation I moved from California to Utah and enrolled at a community college. It only took me one semester to realize that college was not for me. I was working at a collections company when 9/11 happened. This is when I really realized that I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life. After a lot of thought, I decided to join the Army. My stepdad was in the Army so I never even looked at other branches.

As soon as I came across the job of being a Combat Engineer, I knew this is was the job for me. The job title was a fancy way of saying I got to blow stuff up for living. Towards the end of basic training, I learned that my second choice on my “wish list” duty station was about to become a reality. I was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. The day I got to my unit is the day I learned we would be deploying to Iraq in just a few short months. We did a lot of training and packing in those months to prepare.

My unit deployed to Iraq in January of 2004. Our main mission for the year-long deployment was to detect IED’s along the roads in our area. We would then either blow them in place or disarm them and blow them up somewhere safer and away from everyone. We also assisted the infantry unit that was with us. The year went pretty quick because we seemed to work almost every day. This wasn’t a 9 to 5 job with weekends off. I didn’t mind though because it definitely made the time go by faster. In December of 2004 we knew the end was near. This is when my whole world got turned upside down.

On December 3rd of 2004 we were doing a routine route clearance mission and our convoy was hit by an IED. There were five of us in the truck, three men were shaken up but unharmed, one man died on site, and I was severely injured. I was in really bad shape and wasn’t supposed to make it. After two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center my time in the military was over. I had more surgeries than I could count and was still pretty mangled up. The hardest part was that I spent more time at Walter Reed than I did on active duty. This still haunts me to this day.

In October of 2006 I medically retired from the Army. I moved back home to Utah and felt absolutely lost. While in the hospital I had a lot of time to think about my future and what to do next. College seemed to be the best option. My goal was to become a financial advisor and help military veterans manage their money. I was pretty good at math in high school so I figured this would be a good move. After a lot of counselor visits a degree in Communications seemed to be the best fit.

College life was really hard on me. I was a 26 year old cripple that had to walk around with a cane all day. Movies in Iraq were a great way to pass the time little off we had. It seemed that any movie with college scenes the students were always partying. This was the excuse I was looking for. Being disabled in college kind of meant that I was an outcast. I didn’t seem to fit in with anyone and that was really hard and lost. So I began drinking. It was nothing for me to wake up and have a drink before school. Alcohol helped me cope with feeling alone. I got to the point where I would drink until I passed out every day. Somehow I still managed to get decent grades though. I graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and wanted to work for a veteran no profit.

I had a serious girlfriend when I graduated and she had two amazing daughters. Kids weren’t really my thing so I always seemed to find reasons to not be a good man in their lives. I was still drinking every day and didn’t have much of a desire to stop. I’m not sure what she saw in me, but my bride never gave up.

I had always wanted to get into hunting and my buddy called me with an opportunity to hunt a cow elk. The one kicker was that this was a non-drinking event. This was the opportunity I was looking for, but it also meant that I had to go almost a week without drinking. My first thought was that I’d just sneak booze in my bag and nobody would know.

It took my bride not wanting me around her kids and a hunting opportunity for the lightbulb to come on. I needed to become a better person. I realized that my life was spared for a reason the day I was blown up and drinking myself to death wasn’t the answer.

After a lot of struggling I asked my bride to move in with me. It was time to grow up and be a part of the society that I thought didn’t care about me. A short time later I proposed to my bride and she said yes. About a year later we got married and that lightbulb got even brighter. I still struggled with alcohol a little bit and I wanted to be a better partner, father, and member of my veteran community.

On accident, I met some board members of Hunts for the Brave. I was finally in a good place in life and started volunteering for them. I had don’t several golf tournaments and offered to hold on for them. This year will be our 5th tournament and it’s been a success every year. I sat on their board for over two years and am excited to help veterans become more successful in their lives with Warrior Revival. I always tell people that if I can help a vet get passed the lost stage in life even one day less than it took me, it’s a success.