At the time of this episode, Nick Rahn was a newly promoted purple belt and he spent over six years as a blue belt. Nick had to train on and off for years due to his military service but once he left the military he began training continuously, competing and amassed a 4 and 2 MMA record. But Nick faced some incredible hurdles along the way.
Nick served in the Air Force Security Force, was an active military member from 2006 to 2012, and was deployed overseas four times. Nick was the lead gunner on convoys that searched for roadside bombs and IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a lead gunner, riding atop an armored vehicle and manning a 50 caliber machine gun, Nick felt he was responsible for his entire convoy. If he missed something and anyone of his brothers were injured or killed Nick would have believed that it was his fault. That is an unreal amount of pressure for a twenty-year-old young man.
Towards the end of Nick's active duty commitments, Nick was becoming burnt out. He knew he needed to return home but once he did things did not get better, in fact, they became much much worse. Nick had a failing marriage, a dead-end job, and a deep loneliness that really took over his life. He was drinking too much and turning to drugs. At one point found himself working as a bouncer. Things were becoming so dark that Nick wished that during one of the many violent encounters at work, someone would end his life.
Like so many veterans, Nick fell deeper and deeper into depression. He no longer had the brotherhood or sense of purpose he had in the military. As Nick himself describes it, "2015 I was in a hole and couldn't get out. I decided my life was not worth living anymore". So Nick devised a plan to take his own life. Nick canoed to a remote location in Minnesota. He spent five days living off only the fish he could catch and recording his days on his phone, documenting what he believed would be the final days of his life. On the last day, Nick sat at his campsite, put a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. The primer in the bullet was a dud. Nick examined his weapon, pointed towards the lake, and fired all the remaining bullets into the water. The only misfire was the one he meant for himself.
Nick took his failed suicide as a sign and began the process of getting his life back on track. He began taking trips and setting and completing goals for himself. He once again started Jiu Jitsu and that led him to MMA. But the recreational trips he took with fellow veterans gave him a new sense of purpose and brotherhood. Nick realized these trips could benefit others and he started the nonprofit Warriors Next Adventure. Warriors Next Adventure uses recreational therapy to help veterans with PTSD, getting them to open up about their past traumatic experiences so they can begin to see what is holding them back in their lives and begin to build a better future.