By @InfantryDort on X, active duty Army Major
Tortured Warrior XIX: Donald J. Trump
The Torment
Trump was born into wealth but not into peace. His father was demanding and distant, a builder who measured worth in toughness and results. As a boy Donald was wild, defiant, and constantly in trouble. At thirteen, his father sent him away to New York Military Academy to be broken or reforged. There he learned discipline under drill instructors, marched in formation, and carried the sting of exile from his home. The scars of being cast out shaped his resolve. He was not the son who obeyed. He was the son who fought.
The Breaking Point
When he entered politics, the world mocked him. Pundits and politicians laughed at his first campaign for president, branding him a joke, a sideshow, a clown. Yet he endured the ridicule and carried the scars of contempt from the elite. As president and after, his enemies unleashed every weapon they had. Assassination attempts shadowed his rallies. Bullets were fired at him. And when death did not claim him, prosecutors and courts tried. Indictments stacked, cases multiplied, each one designed to bury him in shame or prison. Millions believed no man could survive such a storm.
The Transcendence
But Trump did not break. He turned mockery into momentum and scorn into steel. He won the presidency once when no one believed it possible — and now he has returned, elected again as President of the United States. Each blow that was meant to destroy him only made him stronger. To his supporters he is not just a president but a warrior, scarred and unbowed, standing against the full weight of a hostile world.
The tortured warrior is not spared torment. He is defined by surviving it. From the lonely exile of military school to the jeers of the political class, from the crosshairs of assassins to the gavels of courts, Donald Trump has walked through storms meant to erase him. Yet he still stands — and stands now as President once more.
For those who say he’s not a warrior. Redefine it then. Because I have many years in combat, and I’ve never been hit by a bullet. pic.twitter.com/HXZmZTc0W2
— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) August 30, 2025
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Tortured Warrior XX: Sean Parnell @SeanParnellUSA
The Torment
Parnell was a young Infantry platoon leader when he deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, into some of the most brutal fighting of the war. His unit — Outlaw Platoon — was thrust into daily combat, outnumbered and outgunned. He was wounded by RPG shrapnel, blasted unconscious, and scarred for life. He carried the pain of broken bones, torn flesh, and the invisible torment of watching his men bleed and die. The combat was so frequent that 80% of his platoon ended up wounded that tour.
The Breaking Point
There were nights when he wondered if his platoon would survive. The weight of command pressed on him — each decision could cost lives. He carried the memories of men killed in action, the haunting knowledge that no matter how hard he fought, it was never enough to bring them all home. After the war, he faced another fight: sleepless nights, anger, the clawing darkness of post-traumatic stress. His personal life fractured under the strain. He knew both the horror of combat and the abyss that followed it.
The Transcendence
Parnell turned his torment into testimony. He told the story of Outlaw Platoon, giving voice to his men and to a generation of warriors scarred by Afghanistan. He spoke hard truths about leadership, sacrifice, and the cost of war. He carried his scars into the public arena, standing up for veterans, refusing to let their sacrifices be forgotten.
The tortured warrior is not just a figure of history. He walks among us still, bearing wounds seen and unseen. Sean Parnell proved that even when war breaks the body and the soul, courage can forge those scars into something that speaks for others.
He currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States.
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Tortured Warrior XXI: 1LT Mark Bashaw @MCBashaw
The Torment
Mark Bashaw was no rebel by design. He was an officer stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, doing the work of a quiet professional. But as the COVID mandates spread through the ranks, he saw the burden placed on Soldiers — coercion, testing, and medical orders he believed stood on shaky ground. He carried the torment of knowing that compliance would mean betraying his conscience, while resistance would mean destroying his career.
The Breaking Point
In 2022, Bashaw refused mandatory testing and masking orders. For this, the Army did what it has rarely done in modern times — it court-martialed him. A junior officer was dragged before a military tribunal not for cowardice in battle, not for dereliction of duty, but for defiance of a policy. Found guilty, Bashaw faced the crushing weight of institutional retaliation. His career was left in ruins, his name scarred. The service he had pledged to defend made an example of him to silence others.
The Transcendence
But Bashaw did not vanish. He spoke openly about unlawful orders and constitutional violations, raising his voice even after punishment. His story reached beyond the courtroom, becoming part of the larger testimony of those who refused to bow to coercion. His scars became a warning to the Army — and an inspiration to those who still believe service is not blind obedience but fidelity to higher law.
The tortured warrior is not always a general or a legend. Sometimes he is a young lieutenant who refuses to betray his conscience, enduring the wrath of an entire institution for the sake of truth. Mark Bashaw carried that fire, and with it, showed that even the smallest act of defiance can echo for generations.
He was officially Pardoned by the President of the United States.
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