Nate sits down with HSF to discuss his journey through the roughest years of the Global War on Terrorism, and how he came through the adversity of being whole again........ 

I have never once celebrated this holiday. I never cared. The list of my friends names grew longer and longer but I was so upside down I couldn’t grasp the weight of it all. I kept fighting and diffusing bombs and the list grew longer but it escaped my name- not for a lack of trying.

I will never know what spared me and what took others out there but it happened a lot. This is a photo of me lifting my daughter up to put a star on the very first tree I created when I was home for the last time 2012 ( I didn’t know it then) and directly after a particularly rough many months. 

This picture represents what all of these men gave to me. They kept me scared of dying when I didn’t care anymore. They kept me humble when I thought I knew it all. They kept me gracious for every call I made home. They kept me motivated to get out there and do it better. They shoved lessons learned in my face. They made me fight harder and more persistent. They are honestly the only reason I am still alive-the only reason I was able to lift my child up on that tree in 2012. These guys are still the only reason I’m alive.

 It never gets easier we just get stronger. Thanks boys. 

Ret. MSgt Nate McCafferty (USMC EOD)