Jason Belford is, by rights, a tough dude. He served 17 years as an Army Ranger, an infantryman, sniper, and platoon sergeant. He had completed 12 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment and 10th Mountain Division. He was on the tail end of his military career, training students at Officer Candidate School, and his life was falling apart.
"I didn't ever want to let my leadership down by thinking I couldn't handle something based off of my mental instability of what I was dealing with," Belford said.
While everything looked great on paper, Belford was divorced, rarely saw his children, and was struggling to find an identity and purpose since he left the Ranger Regiment. In 2022, he decided to take his own life.
Holding a gun to his head, he pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. The weapon malfunctioned. Panicked and frightened, he drove back to the 75th Ranger Regiment compound to try to see behavioral therapist Therese Arreola. By happenstance, she was at her office at that moment and saw him.
Belford said that he was hurting so much at that moment that if he couldn't see someone, he would have taken his life right there in the parking lot. Support from friends also provided a lifeline; his best friend talked to him that night and reassured him that he could get through the night.
That was when the treatment began. The Army sent Belford to the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center for a 30-day inpatient program. He thought that when he arrived that he would be the only Ranger undergoing the program. As it turned out, the treatment center was also hosting Navy SEALs, Delta Force operators, and other Rangers who were struggling with the same types of problems, ranging from divorce to alcoholism.
"It gave me relief to know that I’m not alone," Belford said. Today Belford travels the country and shares his story, in hopes that it can help others through the recovery process.