Photo By Daniel Rachal | Future Sailor Daniel Headley, right, crosses the finish line during a Spartan Race...... read more read more
THE LONG WAY BACK
By Dan Rachal
NTAG Portland Public Affairs
Kids often dream about what they would like to be when they grow up; some want to be doctors, lawyers, veterinarians or maybe a professional athlete\. At twelve\-years\-old, Daniel Headley wanted to be in the United States Navy\.
In 2022 Headley joined the Navy out of Navy Recruiting Station Boise, Idaho\. Just five days into a dream career, future Sailor Headley sat in the waiting area at medical at Naval Station Great Lakes and was just trying to keep it together after learning that his Navy career was seemingly over\.
He received electrocardiogram at boot camp, which detected a heart irregularity\. At first, he believed his initial diagnosis was not something that could be fixed or corrected\.
“They said I probably had a good amount of time left because I was young, but I was going to be discharged by the Navy,” Headley said\. “I was essentially living with a time bomb in my chest\.”
He was placed on medical hold and transferred to the Temporary Processing Unit, waiting to be initially discharged\. Instead of thinking about what to do next, Headley got to work on getting back to Great Lakes\. While on medical hold for four weeks, waiting to be seen at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital for a stress test to confirm that he had Wolff\-Parkinson White Syndrome, he spent five minutes on the phone every day with his family in Idaho, researching WPW and learning that it could be corrected with surgery\. His family was his lifeline, scheduling appointments, doing research and helping him get through the process\.
“They were able to do a lot of research for me and get everything scheduled for me when I got back,” he said\. “It kind of sucked because I didn’t have internet to figure out what to do, so I had a lot of help\.”
On the day his flight from Great Lakes touched down in Boise, before even stopping at home to change clothes, he went to the Navy recruiting office\. Headley was excited to see family, but he was focused on figuring out how to get back to boot camp\.
It turns out, even the recruiters weren’t sure what to do because there was no experience with how to deal with his situation\. “They had to figure it out themselves,” he said. “No one had someone come back with this condition before. So, recruiters there started doing some research.”
What they learned was that surgery was required to fix his condition and then he had to meet a requirement of 36 months with no symptoms to be eligible for any military service. Headley’s parents scheduled his surgery for one month after he returned to Idaho. They were not trying to take any risks, so they scheduled the surgery with one of the top surgeons in the United States, down in Salt Lake City.
The surgery was successful\. Headly doesn’t remember much about, except that the nurse told him he was the youngest person they had ever seen\. So, next came the waiting\. Thirty\-six months\. At any point during that time, had he shown any symptoms, the clock would have been reset\. Headley stayed focused and never considered what he might do if his symptoms returned\. “I knew it was going to be a while, just trying to wait out the 36 months,” he said. “I never wanted a Plan B. I feel like if I came up with one it would have been easier to quit.”
While waiting, he got to work. He began training to get into better shape and worked with recruiters getting all his medical documentation together and retook the ASVAB, scoring one point better on the second test than he did the first.
When the time came, he went back to the Military Entrance Processing Station, and they were indecisive about what category he fit into for enlistment. Technically, Headley shipped to boot camp, but he was never issued a Common Access Card and was discharged during his initial processing days. Eventually MEPS categorized him as a prior service candidate.
He needed four waivers to be approved before signing his contract. None of them were for his medical condition. Headley signed his new contract on a Monday and learned that he was able to ship out for boot camp one week later. After three years of waiting, his return was going to happen faster than he had imagined. He was excited, in better shape and mentally prepared.
His first call was to his father. His father had scheduled the appointments, drove to Salt Lake City and was there every step of the way helping Headley get back into the Navy. Even though Headley waited so long, he said he was a bit disappointed about leaving so quickly. He hoped to spend more time with his dad, going for one more elk hunt in September.
“I told my dad first, I can ship out next week,” he said. “And he said, ‘Go chase your dreams.’
On Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, future Sailor Daniel Headley boarded American Airlines flight 1792, from Boise International Airport non-stop to Chicago. Headly acknowledged that coming back was never a guarantee and, even though he has faced a lot of adversity since his first trip to Naval Station Great Lakes in 2022, he that is going to be nothing compared to what is coming. Since his initial stint at boot camp was so short, Headley said there is only one area he thinks he could have an advantage over his fellow future Sailors:
“I at least know how to start making my bed,” he said.
Navy Talent Acquisition Group Portland is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, andoperates two Navy Officer Recruiting stations and 17 Navy Recruiting stations locatedthroughout northern California, western Idaho, Oregon, northern Nevada and southernWashington, covering more than 210,000 square miles. NTAG Portland is staffed withmore than 130 Sailors and civilians whose mission is the recruitment of high-qualitymen and women to fill the officer and enlisted ranks in the U.S. Navy. Follow NTAGPortland on Facebook and Instagram @ntagportland.
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2026 19:48 |
| Story ID: | 574356 |
| Location: | BOISE, IDAHO, US |
| Web Views: | 7 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The Long Way Back, by Daniel Rachal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
