This week’s Veteran is John Wayne Walding, who served in the U.S. Army from 2001-2013. John was in the 3rd Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg, and spent multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Walding served as a Special Forces Communications Sergeant, but truly at his level you cross-train in knowing everyone’s roles in the 18 series MOS’s in reference weapons, engineering, medical, operations & intelligence, and the senior sergeants role. John is a highly decorated soldier, and a True American Hero. On April 6, 2008, in the Battle of Shok Valley, Walding was among 15 American Special Forces soldiers in Task Force Bushmaster’s, ODA 3336, in a joint US-Afghan raid to kill or capture a Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin leader, they engaged the enemy of overwhelming force, and many of the men in his group were badly injured, including Walding himself, whose right leg was severed below the thigh from a sniper’s bullet. Now many a man at that point, would just lie down and accept the pain and their fate, but not John. Walding, like others in combat situations, your training remains apparent and kicks-in, and you are so focused that it motivated him to resist. John, with his severed limb tied off to his thigh, he continued in the firefight for another four hours, before being relieved to receive proper medical treatment. Upon his return to Fort Bragg, Walding recovered and fought to remain in service. He attended the Special Forces Sniper School becoming the first amputee graduate, and later was a Sniper Instructor. John didn’t stop there, and in 2009 hand-cranked his way through the Boston and New York marathons, which in itself is an incredible feat. He later ran the Army 10 Miler event. Walding has had the honor to introduce President Trump at a Veterans Event during one of his campaigns. Today, he is a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, and his story of his time in Afghanistan is told in the book ‘No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan’ by Mitch Weiss and Kevin Maurer. Good Luck John, and Congratulations on being MCNs ‘Veteran of the Week’.