SFC (R) John Wayne Walding spent 12 years in the U. S. Army with 7 of those years being in 3rd Special Forces Group at Ft. Bragg NC. He has a beautiful wife, Amy, and four children, Emma, Sam, Andie, and Hannah. He has combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. During his career at 3rd SFG he worked on ODA 3336 as a Special Forces Communications Sergeant and at the Sniper Detachment as a Sniper instructor. On April 6^th 2008 during the battle of Shok Valley he was shot in his right leg resulting in becoming a below-knee amputee. Post injury he attended Special Forces Sniper School and upon graduation became the first amputee to ever become a Green Beret sniper. His military school experience includes: Special Operations Target Interdiction Course, Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat, 3rd SFG Advance Sniper, Special Forces Qualification course, Airborne and Air assault.

John’s awards and badges include: Silver Star, Bronze star, Purple Heart, Combat infantry badge, Airborne air assault and the special forces tab. John participated in numerous battles during his deployments; most famous was the Battle of Shok Valley, which you can read about in the book “No Way Out: A Story of Valor in the Mountains of Afghanistan” by Mitch Weiss and Kevin Maurer.