By @InfantryDort on X, active duty Army Major
Tortured Warrior XXII: Matthew Lohmeier @matthewlohmeier
The Torment
Matt Lohmeier was a decorated Air Force pilot and one of the first officers commissioned into the newly created U.S. Space Force. He believed in the mission and in the promise of building something new. But as he rose through the ranks, he saw something that tormented him — the spread of political ideology inside the ranks, creeping into training, policies, and culture. He carried the weight of watching the warrior ethos diluted by ideology that had nothing to do with fighting and winning wars.
The Breaking Point
In 2021 he published Irresistible Revolution, warning about the rise of Marxist-influenced ideologies inside the U.S. military. He spoke plainly about what others whispered, calling out the system itself. For this, the institution struck back. He was relieved of command, investigated, and smeared as a political agitator. He carried the torment of being cast out not for failure in leadership or combat, but for daring to defend the military from politicization. His career, once promising, was reduced to ash in a matter of weeks.
The Transcendence
But Lohmeier did not vanish. He took his scars and turned them into testimony. He became a voice outside the wire, writing, speaking, and warning the nation about the dangers within its own institutions. He showed others that silence is complicity and that the price of truth is high — but necessary. His legacy is not measured in rank but in courage.
The tortured warrior is not always destroyed by enemy fire. Sometimes he is broken by the betrayal of the institution itself. Lohmeier proved that scars born of exile can still serve the nation, and that truth spoken in defiance can echo louder than silence kept in safety.
He currently serves as the Undersecretary of the United States Air Force.
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Tortured Warrior XXIII: Florent Groberg @FlorentGroberg
The Torment
Flo Groberg was not born on American soil, but he earned the right to defend it with blood. In Afghanistan in 2012, he charged a suicide bomber to shield his men—his leg shattered, nerves torn, his body nearly destroyed by the blast. For years he learned to walk again, carrying scars only the fiercest devotion can forge. He personally saved the life of my brigade commander at the time when I was one district away.
The Breaking Point
Years later, the country he nearly died to serve mocked him. When he spoke at the Democratic National Convention, critics dismissed his Medal of Honor—not his heroism, but his mere presence in such a place. They ridiculed a warrior scarred by service as if he’d forfeited his right to speak. Yet those same critics would ignore the weight of the sacrifice that earned him the nation’s highest honor.
The Transcendence
Flo Groberg didn’t back down. He didn’t ask anyone’s permission to speak—or serve. In 2021, he was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission, and President Trump carried forward that appointment into his second term. He now helps safeguard the memory of America’s fallen, whose stories should never be forgotten.
The tortured warrior doesn’t need your approval. He’s already paid the price. He can vote for Mickey Mouse if he wants. He earned that right with blood and broken bones. His voice is sacred.
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Tortured Warrior XXIV: Lieutenant Colonel Theresa Long @LTCTheresaLong
The Torment
Theresa Long carried two oaths — one to the Army and one to medicine. As a flight surgeon she bore the burden of protecting aviators who trusted her with their lives. But she also carried scars of her own. On her son’s 7th birthday, just months after surviving major heart surgery, she collapsed with a massive pulmonary embolism. Doctors told her to say goodbye. Her children were rushed from school to her bedside. Her cardiologist whispered, “You could die any minute.” She lay there expecting the end.
The Breaking Point
But instead of death came a new chapter. In that hospital bed she learned she had been selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. Weeks later, strapped into the back of a Chinook at 5,000 feet, she raised her hand and took the oath once more. She thanked God for another day of life and the chance to keep serving. Yet when the COVID mandate came, the Army tried to break her. For doing what her conscience and her training demanded — warning of danger she saw firsthand in her Soldiers — she was sidelined, branded, punished. Just as she had fought through the terror of her own body betraying her, she now faced the torment of betrayal by her institution.
The Transcendence
But Long endured. She did not shrink, even after staring death in the face. She testified in federal court. She stood before Congress. She carried her scars into battle not with the enemy abroad, but with the corruption within. Every breath was a gift, every sunrise a second chance, and she refused to waste it in silence.
The tortured warrior is not only the one who sheds blood in combat. Sometimes she is the one who survives when she should have died, and uses that borrowed time to stand in truth. Theresa Long was promoted on the edge of death in the back of a helicopter, and from that day forward she has carried the fire of a life she almost lost into every fight that mattered.
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