World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji: Gretchen Evans Army History

Competing in the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji is no small feat, but Texas native and army veteran Gretchen Evans didn’t let the title deter her when she applied to be in the race. With a rigorous terrain, the fight to stay welded together from start to finish is an incredible accomplishment. And for Gretchen’s squad, Team Unbroken, the bravery and strength to merely begin the race is enough to warrant applause.

Gretchen’s own army is built of a squadron of military veterans, whom she handpicked for the treacherous race across Fiji. After recruiting Anne Lord Bailey (VA Pharmacist), Evans rounded out the rest of the team with Hal Riley (team captain), Keith Knoop (U.S. Army Veteran and Purple Heart Recipient), and Carl Yarborough (team assistant). Of course, she herself is the esteemed Command Sgt. Maj. Gretchen Evans (U.S. Army retired and Bronze Star recipient). Before her work on this race, Gretchen has seen quite a bit of action from her days in the army.

Evans fought for freedom in the military for 27 years. She enlisted at just 19 years old, beginning her career in intelligence gathering. Citizen Times recorded that her career took her to combat engagements all over the world, from Iran and Afghanistan to Panama and Kosova. Eventually, she earned the title Command Sergeant Major. Her Bronze Star was awarded to her after a particularly difficult mission in a remote part of Afghanistan in January 2006. She battled the Taliban in a daring mission gone wrong, causing her and 15 other soldiers to be separated from the large group. Three were mortally wounded and lost in battle while the rest of her team made it up the mountain they were on. She was ready to give it up there, knowing what her fate would be if she were to be captured. “I would’ve been begging on CNN for my life.” Evans recalled. “It also would’ve been really, really bad for the morale of my troops and the military. I’ll be honest with you- I said, ‘That’s not happening.'” Determined, Evans told her fellow soldiers that if one of them didn’t take her out, she would do it herself.

Thanks to a daring Chinook, Evans had to take no such action. Once home, the revered soldier was awarded a Bronze Star medal for valor and heroism, but Evans felt no such honor. “Because I felt like I was being rewarded, and yet I lost soldiers. It was hard to reconcile these two things,” Evans said through a broken heart. But her trials weren’t over yet. The courageous survivor had one more fight left before retiring from the military. One month later, on February 16, Evans flew out to check in on troops at an operating base in eastern Afghanistan. As soon as she landed, all hell broke loose. They started taking fire, and Evans did her best to get people to safety. “It was coming in like rain, just peppering us.” Evans said. Then, a mortar landed just 10 feet away from her, exploding and instantly killing the two men next to her, but Evans was thrown horizontally across the base. Unable to stop herself, she slammed, head first, into a bunker wall.

From that point, it was a mad scramble to save her life as she was medevaced to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, to Germany, where doctors placed her in a medically induced coma for a few days . Her injuries were severe—shrapnel poked holes in her body, and she suffered not only from a traumatic head injury, but also PTSD. When she awoke, an Army doctor informed her she was deaf. Afterward, Evans went down a long road of depression and PTSD, recovering from her memories of battle and coming to terms with her new disability. But the brave warrior has found the courage and strength to come out on the other side and hasn’t stopped fighting to live. She runs marathons and now has participated in an incredible race, showing recovering vets everywhere that anything is possible.

World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji is available on Amazon Prime.

Source: Citizen Times

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