TOBYHANNA, Pa. - Wounded veterans across Defense Logistics Agency Distribution’s 26 centers are serving their fellow war fighters daily, and their past experiences have impacted them in profound ways. This article is the first in a series highlighting those who continue to give back to their country at DLA Distribution.
Jason Paul Yeager comes from a long lineage of family members who have served in the armed forces. After serving six years in the Air Force, Yeager now serves in a civilian capacity as a distribution process worker at DLA Distribution Tobyhanna, Pa.
Yeager served in Operation Southern Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom as a KC-10A Extender crew chief for 605th Aircraft Generation Squadron under 305th Air Mobility Wing at what is now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
Yeager suffered multiple injuries during his time in the Air Force and said he understands those who have suffered a paralyzing injury.
“I lost all movement in my right hand from a fractured arm. It took months and months of electrical stimulation and therapy to regrow the nerve structure and to be able to use my right hand again,” he said. “I am still in therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and continue the battle to adjust to civilian life years later.”
Yeager said military life helped him to become organized, to be regimented, to meet deadlines, and to accomplish the unimaginable.
“You will never accomplish anything greater in life than having a child and serving in any branch of the United States military,” he said.
Yeager said he credits his grandfather for teaching him important life lessons.
“He taught me everything from how to plant things in the garden when I was a small child, to helping me choose what we felt was the best military career for me,” he said. “He also taught me how to manage myself, my finances, my family life, and how to provide a future for my children.”
Being in the Air Force had a profound impact on Yeager, he said.
“I went from a kid who knew nothing to a man in charge of maintenance on an $80 million aircraft. The biggest lesson I have learned while serving is the real meaning of what matters most in life. I see too many people walking around in a daze doing the daily grind, caught up in life.
“While sitting alone in a foreign country with none of life’s cushy comforts that the war fighter provides to America, you often realize what you take for granted really fast – and I am not talking about the liberty to use the bathroom whenever you like or to hit the fridge for a snack before a movie – but the missing presence of your loved and cherished ones: the mother that raised you as a child, the father that put the backbone in you, your grandparents that nurtured you while you were growing, and your wife and children,” Yeager said. “It hits home when all you have is the two feet God put you on and your brothers and sisters in the force. It is that sacrifice that we endure that keeps this nation safe, and it does not come free.”
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