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#9 Brandon Fender: From Combat to Community—How Recovery Rebuilt a Life of Purpose
Brandon Fender’s story is a raw journey through war, trauma, addiction, and ultimately, redemption.
A Marine Corps veteran with four combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Brandon returned home carrying survivor’s guilt, untreated PTSD, and severe physical injuries. What began as prescribed pain medication quickly escalated into opioid addiction, heroin use, and a life marked by isolation, paranoia, and near-suicidal despair. At his lowest point—overdosing in a Burger King parking lot and sitting alone with a pistol in his mouth—one phone call from his mother changed everything: “I want…
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