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Would You Turn Down Special Forces Selection for Her? He Did. / Daniel Coffeen US Army

Daniel Coffeen, U.S. Army Veteran, Ranger School graduate, Medical Service Corps officer, tells their story to Vegas Veteran Voices, a Veteran-led nonprofit in Las Vegas.

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In this story
Daniel Coffeen, U.S. Army Veteran, Ranger School graduate, Medical Service Corps officer
Service branch
U.S. Army
Published
Running time
1 hour 13 minutes (1:13:09)
Production
Filmed by Vegas Veteran Voices, a Veteran-led nonprofit in Las Vegas

“I was a guy that did not struggle until I got out of the military.”

Daniel CoffeenHear it at 45:51

About this story

He had the Ranger tab. He had the orders to Special Forces Assessment and Selection. He had his name on the Milper message. Then he called his fiancée, she started talking about her PA program in Texas and the wedding and the career course, and Daniel Coffeen went to San Antonio instead.

He calls it self-betrayal. He says the worst part wasn't missing Selection it was lying to himself that he'd go later.

Daniel Coffeen is an Army Veteran and Ranger School graduate who was never supposed to be there in the first place. Medical Service Corps officer, no infantry school, couldn't take apart a 240. He got honor grad at a leadership course he didn't sign up for in Hawaii, got a phone call telling him his Ranger School date was in five days, and went straight through. Sixty-one and done, no recycles, one of four out of a hundred and fifty. His unit's response: great job, you don't work here anymore.

And that's the front half. The mother who talked him out of flying Apaches. Why the Army encourages soldiers to get married and how he used it to get stationed in Hawaii twice. The steroids he says changed his brain more than his body, and the therapist who calls him a 50% narcissist a diagnosis he doesn't argue with. Expelled from physical therapy school with two months left and $94,000 of GI Bill he now owes back. And the $100,000 first year of what he calls a reverse OnlyFans.

This episode is sponsored by Bulkhead Energy www.bulkheadenergy.com

In their words

“The worst part was that I lied to myself and I said, "I’ll just do it some other time."”

Daniel CoffeenHear it at 30:30

“I did not think I was going to be one of those people that had a rough transition. And I certainly was.”

Daniel CoffeenHear it at 46:01

Chapters

  1. 0:00 Cold Open
  2. 0:41 Rewriting Homeless People's Signs
  3. 4:32 Imaginary Numbers and the $195 Coffee Maker
  4. 7:30 Welcome to Vegas Veteran Voices
  5. 7:48 A Last Name That Isn't His by Blood
  6. 10:52 "Killing Nazis and Screwing French Chicks"
  7. 11:31 Why the Marine Corps Wouldn't Take Him
  8. 12:35 West Point, Merchant Marine, and Seven Tries at the ACT
Show all 33 chaptersShow fewer chapters
  1. 14:09 An ROTC Cadre Full of Special Forces Guys
  2. 17:15 Apache Pilot vs. His Mother
  3. 19:51 "Your Ranger School Date Is Next Week"
  4. 22:56 Peanut Butter, Fire Guard, and 61 and Done
  5. 24:29 The Tab and the Commander's Table
  6. 26:39 Taking Apart a 240 Under Nods
  7. 28:45 Why the Army Wants You to Get Married
  8. 30:17 Turning Down Special Forces Selection
  9. 32:44 Getting Out During COVID
  10. 34:35 Nicotine, Stims, and the 17-Hour Timeline
  11. 37:24 Lakota, Apache, and an Invented Country
  12. 41:18 Social Capital and the Miami Steakhouse
  13. 43:55 "I Don't Think About the Military Anymore"
  14. 45:29 The Struggle He Caused Himself
  15. 46:31 Steroids and the 50% Narcissist
  16. 49:06 The GRE, Five Times
  17. 52:12 Three Citations and an Expulsion
  18. 53:15 The $94,000 GI Bill Debt
  19. 56:21 Bodybuilding Is the Weirdest Sport
  20. 1:00:00 The Reverse OnlyFans
  21. 1:01:33 Be the Only, Not the Best
  22. 1:05:49 The Internet Is Not a Real Place
  23. 1:08:26 Accountability and 104 Weeks
  24. 1:12:05 Where to Find Him
  25. 1:12:36 Wrap-Up

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