Bucks For The Brave Nominees – Part 2

I am honored to nominate Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jason Stanley for Bucks for the Brave. Jason’s nearly 31 years of service to our nation represent an extraordinary career of sacrifice, leadership, courage, and commitment to the United States Army and the Special Operations community.

Jason’s military story began in 1987 while he was attending Stephen F. Austin State University and playing college football. He and his high school sweetheart, Melissa, were building a life together when they both felt called to something greater. Together, they made the decision to join the United States Army.

Jason attended Basic and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, while Melissa attended Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Following his initial training, Jason attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. His next assignment would take him to West Germany, but before leaving the United States, Jason made one very important stop.

He traveled to Melissa’s Advanced Individual Training post at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, where the two were married in the post chapel—on Melissa’s lunch break. After a short 18-hour honeymoon, Jason departed for Germany. It is difficult to imagine a more fitting beginning to a marriage that would endure the deployments, separations, uncertainty, and sacrifices of nearly 31 years of Army service.

In Germany, Jason was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. His abilities quickly distinguished him among his peers. He was one of only eight team members selected from IV Corps to participate in the 1990 Boeselager NATO Reconnaissance Competition, an Olympic-style, physically grueling military competition that tested running and shooting, tactical swimming, and challenging nighttime orienteering through the rugged Bavarian mountains. Jason and his teammates emerged victorious in the NATO competition.

Jason’s service in Germany also placed him at the center of one of the defining moments of the Cold War. He was stationed in Berlin and was on duty when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. For most Americans, the fall of the Berlin Wall is something remembered through photographs, television footage, and history books. Jason experienced it in uniform, on duty, as an American soldier serving on the front line of the Cold War.

It would not be the last time Jason found himself personally witnessing history.

Within months of his team’s NATO reconnaissance victory, Jason chose an even more demanding path and applied for Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection. In August 1990, he was selected to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, graduating in May 1992.

Jason was subsequently assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, beginning a long career in Army Special Forces. He specialized in the Middle East, with Farsi as his language specialty, and served in numerous assignments and operations throughout the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

One of the defining moments of Jason’s career occurred while he and his team were on a mission operating from the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, when it was attacked by terrorists. Jason was among the survivors of the bombing. Rather than focusing solely on their own survival, Jason and his Special Forces team immediately went to work.

With the Marine Embassy Security Guard devastated by the attack, Jason’s A-Team helped clear and secure the heavily damaged embassy and prepared for the possibility of a follow-on attack. In the weeks that followed, Jason assisted the surviving Embassy Regional Security Officer in restoring basic security functions at a new location.

Jason understood the significance of what had happened. The bombing was a warning of the threat posed by international terrorism, and the next two decades of his career would be shaped by America’s response to that threat.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the operational tempo of Jason’s career increased dramatically. As a member and later Team Sergeant of a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), he served on numerous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. He spent years conducting special operations alongside American and host-nation Special Operations Forces in some of the most demanding environments in the world.

As his career progressed, Jason was repeatedly entrusted with positions of greater responsibility. His operational and senior leadership assignments included Special Forces ODA Team Sergeant, Special Forces Company Sergeant Major, Battalion Operations Sergeant Major, a nominative Senior Enlisted Advisor position on the Joint Staff, and Battalion Command Sergeant Major at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Jason’s career culminated with his selection as Command Sergeant Major for Special Operations Command Yemen.

He also served in an operational assignment with U.S. Central Command’s Special Operations Command Central in Tampa, Florida, and later brought decades of operational experience to Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center. There, as a Special Operations Forces observer/controller, Jason helped mentor and prepare another generation of American soldiers for the realities of the Global War on Terrorism.

Decorations, Medals, Awards, and Qualifications

The scope of Jason’s service is further reflected in the extraordinary number of decorations, campaign medals, unit awards, badges, and qualifications he earned throughout his career. His awards include:

Soldier’s Medal
Bronze Star Medal – 4th Award
Defense Meritorious Service Medal – 2nd Award
Meritorious Service Medal – 5th Award
Army Commendation Medal – 4th Award
Joint Service Achievement Medal
Army Achievement Medal
Joint Meritorious Unit Award – 3rd Award
Meritorious Unit Commendation
Army Superior Unit Award
Army Good Conduct Medal – 10th Award
National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star
Iraq Campaign Medal with Seven Campaign Stars
Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Southwest Asia Service Medal
Humanitarian Service Medal – 2nd Award
NATO Medal
Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon – 5th Award
Army Service Ribbon
Overseas Service Ribbon – 4th Award
Combat Infantryman Badge
Special Forces Tab
Military Free Fall Parachutist Badge
Senior Parachutist Badge
Air Assault Badge
Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge

These decorations are impressive on paper, but what they represent is even more significant. Seven campaign stars on the Iraq Campaign Medal, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star, four Bronze Star Medals, ten Army Good Conduct Medals, and the Combat Infantryman Badge speak to a career that was not spent watching history from the sidelines. Jason repeatedly served where our nation needed experienced Special Operations soldiers the most.

The Soldier’s Medal stands out among an already remarkable list of decorations. Awarded for heroism, it demonstrates that Jason’s service was defined not simply by professional accomplishment, but by personal courage.

A Family Legacy of Service

Jason’s story is also the story of a family built around service.

Jason and Melissa joined the Army together in 1987 and squeezed their wedding into Melissa’s lunch break before Jason departed for Germany. They could not possibly have known where that decision would eventually take them.

Melissa stood beside Jason through the deployments, separations, uncertainty, and responsibilities that define a career in Army Special Operations. Their story is a reminder that military service is rarely carried by the service member alone.

That tradition of service has continued into the next generation. Jason’s son-in-law is also an accomplished Green Beret, carrying forward a family connection to the Special Forces community that has been such a significant part of Jason and Melissa’s lives.

Their daughter, Brenna, has literally spent her entire life standing alongside a Green Beret—first her father and now her husband.

For a man who spent decades training, mentoring, and leading Green Berets, there is something especially meaningful about seeing that tradition of service continue within his own family.

From Special Forces to German Shorthaired Pointers

Retirement from the Army did not mean retirement from having a mission—a meaningful task, challenge, and purpose.

As Jason approached the end of nearly 31 years of military service, his family understood that transitioning from the extremely demanding, high-tempo world of Special Operations to civilian life would not necessarily be easy. After decades of preparing for and completing multiple combat tours, Jason needed something in retirement that could challenge him physically and mentally while providing a new sense of purpose.

His family decided that what Jason needed was a dog possessing many of the same qualities that had defined so much of his professional life: drive, intelligence, athleticism, determination, and functionality.

They chose a versatile hunting breed—the German Shorthaired Pointer.

The decision proved to be far more important than simply adding a hunting dog to the family. The high-drive German Shorthair gave Jason something productive to focus on as he transitioned from military life. Breeding, training, handling, hunt testing, and hunting the Great Plains provided structure, purpose, and another demanding pursuit to master.

The family affectionately refers to his first versatile hunting dog, Zoey, as Jason’s “PTSD dog.” Zoey became an important companion during his transition and helped introduce Jason to what would become the next major chapter of his life.

What began with one German Shorthaired Pointer ultimately grew into Bones Fork Kennels, founded by Jason and Melissa after his military career.

Jason approached breeding and training dogs with many of the same principles he carried throughout his Army career: discipline, preparation, high standards, attention to detail, and an unwillingness to settle for mediocrity.

Through Bones Fork Kennels, Jason has dedicated his post-military life to raising, developing, and training high-quality German Shorthaired Pointers. His goal is not simply to produce beautiful dogs, but to develop high-drive, functional, versatile hunting dogs capable of exceptional performance in the field—much like our nation’s Green Berets.

Over time, Bones Fork Kennels has produced some of the finest German Shorthaired Pointers in the country, giving Jason an entirely new community in which to teach, mentor, hunt, and share his experiences.

There is a fitting connection between Jason’s two careers. For nearly 31 years, he developed soldiers and teams by identifying and mentoring individual potential, demanding excellence, building confidence, and preparing them to perform when it mattered most.

Today, he applies that same patience, discipline, and commitment to developing exceptional working dogs.

The uniform changed. The mission did not.

Why Jason Stanley Deserves Bucks for the Brave

The titles, medals, badges, assignments, and accomplishments are remarkable, but they still tell only part of Jason Stanley’s story.

For more than three decades, Jason served wherever the Army and his country needed him. He progressed from a young paratrooper and Border Scout to a seasoned Green Beret and ultimately a Command Sergeant Major entrusted with leadership at some of the highest levels within the Special Operations community and Department of Defense.

His career intersected with history in ways few veterans can say they personally experienced. He stood duty in Berlin as the Berlin Wall fell. He survived the terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. Following 9/11, he repeatedly deployed into conflicts that would define a generation of American military service.

Jason served multiple tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Yemen, and throughout the Middle East. He led Special Forces soldiers in demanding operational environments, served on the Joint Staff and within joint and special operations commands, and ultimately used his decades of experience to prepare the soldiers who would follow him into harm’s way.

When his military career ended, Jason found a new mission through the outdoors and the German Shorthaired Pointer. What began as his family’s effort to help a career Green Beret transition into civilian life became a passion and ultimately a second career through Bones Fork Kennels.

That makes Jason an especially fitting candidate for Bucks for the Brave.

For Jason, hunting and working dogs are far more than recreation. They became part of his transition from a lifetime of military service into the next chapter of his life. The outdoors gave him another place to focus his energy, challenge himself, build relationships, and continue pursuing the sense of purpose that had defined his military career.

Bucks for the Brave exists to recognize veterans whose service, sacrifice, courage, and character deserve to be honored. Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jason Stanley embodies exactly that spirit.

After nearly 31 years of service—including decades in Army Special Forces, numerous combat deployments, and a career devoted to leading and preparing America’s soldiers—Jason has more than earned an opportunity to spend time in the outdoors among fellow veterans who understand what service and sacrifice mean.

For most of his adult life, Jason answered when his country called. Today, his son-in-law continues that proud Special Forces tradition, while Jason has found a new purpose in the hunting fields and in the dogs he breeds and trains.

There may be no better way to honor Jason than through an organization that brings together three things that have become central to his life: veterans, fellowship, and the outdoors.

It would be a privilege to see Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jason Stanley selected for Bucks for the Brave. I can think of few veterans more deserving of the recognition, fellowship, and experience this program provides.

I proudly and wholeheartedly nominate Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jason Stanley for Bucks for the Brave.