The Resilient Show
The Green Beret Who Carried His OWN LEG Down a Mountain: John Wayne Walding
Episode Description
At 26 years old, Sgt. 1st Class (Ret.) John Wayne Walding, born on the 4th of July and named after the Western legend, was pinned down on a cliff in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley. Under a storm of machine-gun fire he folded his nearly severed right leg, clamped it between his thighs, applied a tourniquet and kept fighting for four more hours. In this raw conversation with host Chad Robichaux, Walding unpacks growing up in small-town Texas and shipping off to basic training; the 2003 Iraq invasion, Special Forces selection and the six-hour battle of Shok Valley on April 6, 2008 that earned his Silver Star and cost him his leg. If you need a master-class in resilience, purpose and unshakeable faith, this episode is it.
EPISODE DETAIlS
Guest
John Wayne Walding
Biography
John Wayne Walding is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant First Class, recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart, who became a national inspiration after the 2008 Battle of Shok Valley in Afghanistan—where, despite a nearly severed right leg, he applied a tourniquet, folded the limb between his thighs, and fought on for four more hours. Walding later made history as the first amputee to graduate the elite Special Forces Sniper School, ran the Boston Marathon on a prosthetic, and launched the veteran-empowerment ventures Gallantry Global and the Best Defense Foundation. His life’s mantra, “Lean forward and fight hard,” drives his o
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