As he leaves the Marines, a Navy Cross recipient finds purpose through tragedy
Nick Jones says he was born to be a fighter. He is cool under chaos and thinks quickly on his feet, both of which served him well in the Marine Corps. And like others who choose to join the armed forces, Nick wanted to be a part of something bigger than himself.
But individual experiences in the military vary. And Nick's career, half of which he spent as a Marine Raider in MARSOC, the Marine Corps' special operations group, is mired in despair.
He suffered one tragedy after another over the course of his 11-year-career, losing friends in both combat overseas and disasters at home. On one occasion, he was charged with informing his best friend's widow of her husband's untimely death, which he said may have been the hardest thing he has ever had to do.
His journey through the Marine Corps culminated in March 2020 on a mountainside in Iraq. It was there that he narrowly cheated death while desperately trying to save two of his wounded teammates, for which he would later be awarded the Navy Cross — second only to the Medal of Honor.
But he didn't walk away unscathed. A single bullet to the leg would cost him his Marine Corps career and force him into medical retirement at 29 years old.
Like everyone else who inevitably leaves the military, Nick had to figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He spent over a year and a half lost in the pain. Having lost a number of his friends, the use of his leg and his livelihood all at once, Nick was afraid of the future and regularly caught himself thinking, "I have no idea what to do."
A battle marked the beginning of the end for Nick's military career
The operation was in its early stages when things started to go horribly wrong. It was March 8, 2020, and Nick and his fellow Marines joined Iraqi security forces on a mission to clear out a cave system harboring Islamic State fighters in the Makhmur mountains in northern Iraq, about 40 miles outside Irbil.
A massive firefight erupted on the mountainside.
