Living with Trauma, Finding True Faith, and Traveling the Long Recovery Road Back
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Lawrence E. Dumas Jr. is an Executive Brand & Communications Strategist, Army veteran, and travel experience specialist who uses storytelling, digital marketing, and AI to help people design meaningful, memory-building experiences in life.
As America approaches 250 years, I find myself reflecting less on celebration alone and more on what truly sustains a nation. Peace, order, and ordinary daily life do not maintain themselves. They rest on sacrifice, discipline, and the willingness of military professionals to carry burdens most people will never fully see. I am not sharing this for sympathy. I am sharing it as one honest layer behind the work I do today and as a reminder not to take for granted those who help preserve stability in an unstable world.
I joined the Army Reserve in June 2001 at 17 years old and left for Basic Training in November of that same year. Later, when the time came, I had a choice. I could have gone Active Duty and gone to Germany, but I chose to deploy to Iraq with my co-ed Reserve unit, the men and women who had welcomed me into the Army from the beginning. That decision was rooted in loyalty. At that age, the Army was not just an opportunity, it was structure, purpose, and belonging. When the call came, I believed in standing with the people who had already stood with me.
I served two back-to-back tours in Iraq and later spent time in a training command. I experienced enough of the Army to know that I loved it. I loved the mission, the discipline, and the sense of purpose that came with serving something larger than myself. I also learned that combat service changes a person long after the deployment ends.
My experience was not simply being in the country. I was on the roads, helping sustain the lines and transport the equipment needed to keep operations functioning in a theater of war. That work mattered because a mission cannot continue without support. No place over there was truly safe, and my role kept me moving through danger while helping keep the operation going. On those roads, I had to read movement, behavior, and intent in real time. There were overzealous beggars. There were high-strung insurgents. At times, the distinction between the two was not immediately clear. That kind of uncertainty creates its own mental pressure. It teaches you to stay ready, stay alert, and make decisions under tension. Even after returning home, that conditioning does not simply disappear.
I also served near the Iranian border multiple times, and that left its own mark. It is one thing to hear about anti-American hostility from a distance. It is another thing to feel the mental weight of being hated for what you represent, even when the mission is to stop what is perceived to be dangerous and harmful to geopolitical stability. That kind of pressure becomes part of the internal landscape you carry. It shapes how you think, how you assess risk, and how you move through the world.
At the same time, Iraq gave me a perspective that went beyond conflict. I witnessed an entire country honoring its religious beliefs in unison. I saw a seriousness about faith in public life that left an impression on me. I also saw people living without many of the luxuries Americans often take for granted. I saw what it looks like when comfort is limited, and convenience is not assumed. That stayed with me. It made me more grateful to be an American, but it also made me more aware of how carelessly we can treat what we have. In the United States, we live with extraordinary opportunity and resources, yet we can still divide ourselves, resent one another, and act as though abundance is not enough. Service taught me that stability is not automatic, and blessings are easy to overlook once they become familiar.
Part of that understanding began long before Iraq. I was born an American citizen in a military hospital in an area shaped by the largest naval base and home of NATO. That is where I spent my childhood. I grew up around service, history, structure, and responsibility. America was never just a slogan to me. It was a sacrifice, order, and a living inheritance. That early environment helped shape how I understood both service and country. It also deepened my respect for the fabric of this nation and the people who have helped hold it together across generations.
Still, the battlefield did not stay overseas. After the Army, I went through a divorce and then the pain of losing her to terminal illness. I experienced failed seasons in Virginia and Florida and eventually reached one of the lowest points of my life. There was a time when I did not want to stay on this earth. Trauma does not always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it looks like silence, exhaustion, grief, and a person trying to function while falling apart on the inside.
Eventually, I ended up back in Houston, Texas. That is where I began to find True Faith and learn who God and Jesus are in a real way. But healing was not instant. It has taken 17 years to regain my footing. I am still growing and doing the work, but I am no longer where I once was. That matters to me because I never want to present recovery as something shallow or automatic. For me, it has been a long road, requiring faith, endurance, humility, and time.
That road back became visible in my education and in the purpose I now carry. I earned my first degree at 39 years old in 2024. I earned a master’s degree at 40, and I am now finishing a second master’s. Those milestones mean more to me than credentials alone. They are evidence that trauma did not get the final word. They are proof that purpose can be reclaimed after loss, despair, and years of rebuilding. They are also part of why I do the work I do today. I want to help others who have experienced trauma regain control of their lives, not from theory, but from a life that has been tested.
This reflection is personal, but it is not only about me. I hope it leaves readers more mindful of the sacrifices military professionals around the world make every day, often without recognition, often without full understanding from the public, and often while carrying burdens that remain invisible. The uniform may be visible. The weight often is not.
My story is not about applause. It is about perspective. It is about remembering that peace is not casual, stability is not automatic, and purpose can be lost and found again. I served. I carried what came with that service. I lost my footing. I found faith. I kept going.
That is what lies beyond the battlefield.
Read more from Lawrence E. Dumas Jr.
Lawrence E. Dumas Jr., Executive Brand Communications Strategist
Lawrence E. Dumas Jr. is an Executive Brand & Communications Strategist, travel experience specialist, and an Army combat veteran, who centers his work on one core question, "How can we help people make informed decisions that lead to better, memory-building experiences?"
