Photo By Joshua Garcia | United States Marine Corp Maj. Taylor Hershberger Wounded Warrior Battalion East...... read more read more
After U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Aaron Lin cleared landmines from an Iraqi neighborhood in 2008, a local resident came up and reached out his hand.
“Thank you for making my neighborhood safe for my grandkids,” the man told the explosive ordnance disposal technician.
It was a moment of gratitude and trust that Lin carried with him throughout his deployment.
“I thought to myself, I could do this job for the rest of my life,” he said. “We were disarming 10 improvised explosive devices a day …trip wires, land mines, pressure plates, anything you could think of. I was supremely confident.”
But an attack on his unit during another deployment in Afghanistan took a toll on him.
“All that confidence I had just went to the basement. It just bottomed out.”
He would begin to suffer an injury with no visible scars: posttraumatic stress disorder. It was Lin’s turn to reach out—and his leadership, family, and professionals in the Military Health System took his hand.
Attack on March 30, 2010
Lin and his team were disarming IEDs on foot when an explosion ripped through their patrol. Two of his friends were killed. He felt immense guilt that he survived when others died.
“I got blown up a couple times, but that part didn’t really bother me,” he said. “What bothered me is we had a couple casualties that day. I should have died out there with them.”
Lin said the motto of EOD training, “initial success or total failure,” haunted him as he felt like “a complete failure.”
He returned home, but not the same. Even in joyous moments, he felt nothing.
“I was numb,” Lin said. “I could not feel closeness to my wife. I just couldn’t feel anything.” He deployed again but was “running away from my problems and everything.” When he returned home this time, he experienced depression and detachment, and suffered nightmares.
It was a “a pain that I can't describe,” he said. “But I could feel it in my heart.”
A Sergeant Intervenes
Lin, then stationed at Joint Base Andrews, was struggling as new deployment orders to Syria fast approached.
“I could not handle it. I was not sleeping and having nightmares every other night.”
A unit leader noticed Lin was struggling. According to Lin, he was doing the “first sergeant thing” by simply asking if he was OK.
“I was like, ‘I'm fine, I’m fine. I don’t need any help,’” said Lin.
But the first sergeant could tell he wasn’t fine. At his encouragement, Lin decided to go to the mental health clinic.
That intervention led to six weeks of intensive outpatient treatment at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. There, he was diagnosed with PTSD and started a comprehensive treatment plan under the care of his MHS team.
“They had a schedule for me printed out for the whole six weeks,” he said. “Cognitive processing therapy, yoga, art, sleep classes, group therapy … it helped me to start looking at things differently. It’s basically anything you can think of to help yourself work through it.”
He credits the Fort Belvoir care team with saving his life. “That intensive outpatient truly changed me … I came out of it so much better than I was before.”
Lin was also inspired by the acts of the first sergeant that he applied to be one himself.
“When he pushed me to go to mental health, I decided that I wanted to become a first sergeant so I could pay it forward and help other people,” he said. Like his former first sergeant, he encouraged those who seemed to be struggling to seek help. Yet an attempted suicide in Lin’s unit brought back to negative thoughts of doubt and self-worth.
“All those feelings that I got back while I was deployed: ‘What could I have done different?’ I thought I did everything that I possibly could to prevent that. I began to plummet again.”
‘Warrior Mindset’ and Perseverance
While Lin continued mental health treatment, a friend and fellow EOD technician convinced him to give the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program a chance.
Lin questioned whether he deserved to be in the program. “I’m not missing a limb,” he said. “I don’t think I belong.”
But seeing the other wounded warriors sharing their own stories, Lin decided to try out for Team Air Force. “I found something that helped me reconnect,” Lin said. “Being with other warriors who understood, it gave me a path forward.”
“I found the power of sports, competing, striving for something,” Lin said. “And just being with the Air Force Wounded Warrior community and all my warrior friends who were struggling too, it changed me.”
In March 2024, he earned a spot on Team Air Force at the Department of Defense Warrior Games. He went on to earn silver medals in wheelchair basketball and rugby.
His new passion for athletics didn’t stop there. At trials and competitions throughout the year, Lin medaled in air pistol, placed in archery, and exceled in discus, shot put, and rowing. In the 2024 DOD Warrior Games, he recalled a moment where he channeled his “warrior mindset” when his rowing team was facing last place in competition.
“When I was in Afghanistan and Iraq, you had to have that warrior mindset,” Lin said. “If your team is down, you still have to push through, whether that’s on the field of sports or the field of battle.”
He leveraged the experience of his own journey to encourage his team to persevere.
“We are not representing the Air Force like this,” he told the team. “We pulled each other up and ended up coming back and getting bronze. That bronze felt like gold.”
Out of competition, Lin gave back. He has mentored adaptive sports athletes and has helped several make Team Air Force. He shared his journey as an Air Force Wounded Warrior ambassador, speaking at events to fellow service members around the country. He encourages fellow service members to reach out to local mental-health clinics, chaplains, or inpatient care, and shares resources like to Military OneSource for support.
Even with all the support from his health care team, the Wounded Warrior program, and friends, Lin stresses his wife has been his strongest form of support, “100%.”
“She’s my caregiver. She reminds me to take my medicine, grounds me when I wake up from night terrors. She’s the reason I can do what I do,” he said. “What’s most important is you and your family. That’s forever.”
He said the warrior mindset is not about perfection, “It’s about heart and perseverance.”
Lighting the Path Forward
Since 2024, Lin has been promoted to senior master sergeant, received his master’s degree, named Air Force Male Athlete of the Year, and is competing in the 2025 DOD Warrior Games, representing his team as a torchbearer—an honor bestowed upon him by his teammates.
“They entrusted me to be the warrior spirit of the team,” he said. “I don’t take that lightly.”
Lin hopes his story encourages others to ask for help and stay the course.
“When you or your team gets knocked down, you got to get back up. Got to do it again. Got to try again.”
Lin said he continues to push forward. Still serving. Still finishing the mission—thanks to the care of his MHS team.
“I wish I had sought help earlier, but I’m here now, and I’m better for it,” Lin said. “Our health care system really didn't turn me away. I'm grateful for that. Even though I didn't feel like I deserved the help, they didn't turn me away. They took care of my concerns and took me seriously. I probably wouldn’t be where I am at today if it wasn’t for the military healthcare system and Air Force Wounded Warrior Program.”
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.22.2025 15:44 |
| Story ID: | 543526 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Warrior Games Torchbearer: Military Health System Team ‘Changed my Life’, by Robert Hammer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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