The Man in the Arena
Unwavering Leadership for Country and Veterans
Deidra Bowling-Meade
The Ashland Beacon
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
This famous speech by Theodore Roosevelt is etched in the cedar chest belonging to Tyler Blake Daniels, who served in the Army from 2008-2012. Daniels proudly displays his military achievements in the chest and along the walls of his office. He was the man in the arena who longed to serve in the military, who strived courageously to become more and was devoted to the cause as described by Roosevelt.
Daniels knew from a young age he wanted to be in the service. Daniels shared, “Both my grandfathers were in the Marines. That was the only thing that I ever really wanted to do when I grew up. Grandma would go down and shop at the Army Navy surplus store because she knew I wanted that kind of stuff. I would go out in the woods and put a tent up and things like that. I was always getting surplus military gear, sleeping bags, tents, and cooking pans. So, it was just never really a question of what am I gonna do after high school.”
Daniels graduated high school from Boyd County in 2002. He tried to go into the service right after graduation but wasn’t able to join until June 2008. Daniels explained, “I had tried to go straight out of high school. I broke my leg my senior year playing football, and I had to have some screws in my ankle. I was told I wasn't allowed to join. It was pre-9/11. After 9/11 happened, they started taking a lot more soldiers. By the time I joined in 2008, there was the surge in Iraq going on and they made some exemptions so people with plates and screws were then allowed to join. My little sister actually joined three years before I did, and she's the one who came home and said, ‘we have a soldier in my unit and he's got pins in his wrist, and they let him join. You should go back down and check to see if you can join now.’ We went down that day to the recruiting office. I was working at FedEx. I'd been working there since I got out of high school, and then I went down and joined and quit FedEx.”
Daniels joined the Army and scored high enough on the ASVAB exam to have his choice of open jobs. He chose Human Intelligence Collector. Daniels described what that job entailed, “It entailed two different parts. Half of it is interrogation, and then half of it is called Source Operations, which most people call Confidential Informants. Essentially, it’s running people who are gathering information on the enemy. We would meet with them and take that information and put it in reports for the analysts to read about. You're dealing with spies. You're sending people out to spy on the enemy, and they bring that information back to you and you're the point of contact for that person.”
In addition to basic training, Daniels went through six months of human intelligence training and then was selected for a one-year pilot language program for learning Arabic. At the end of that course, Daniels spent five weeks on a trip to Jordan immersing himself in the culture and practicing his newly acquired language. Daniels recalled the remarkable experience, “We would walk around to do touristy things, but speak only in Arabic to the locals, which was weird because they would get excited that they're meeting an American. They would try to practice their English while you're trying to practice your Arabic, so it was hilarious. I got to see some of Petra. I got to go to the baptismal site where Jesus was baptized on the River Jordan and actually got a little bowl of water from the river. I got a picture of the Israeli flag in the background when I'm getting water out of the Jordan River, and you can see that Israel is only like 15 feet away across the creek. I also jet skied in the Red Sea, which was pretty neat.” These travels were one of the highlights of Daniels’ time in the service.
After the language program, Daniels was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas before deploying to Iraq. His opportunity to go to Iraq wasn’t going to happen, but Daniels’ persistence and dedication gave him the chance. Daniels explained, “I'm getting ready to deploy, and they told me you're not going to deploy because your contract was up halfway through if we say the whole 12 months. It was from August 2011 to August 2012. I was due to get out in February, and they said, ‘There's no sense in sending you over for wanting to fly right back in a couple months. So, we'll just keep you here because normally it takes four to six months to do your out-processing. We can start now, and you'll be processed on time. So, you just stay here.’ I was like, that's not going to happen. So, I went in and I begged, ‘Let me stay. I joined to do this. I'm not leaving without doing this.’’
Daniels willingness to stay longer was a rare occurrence. He was told most people are trying to get out instead of being deployed. His reply– “I’m not.” Daniels took a Voluntary Stop Loss and extended his contract nine months. He was deployed to Iraq and was part of Operation New Dawn. Daniels shared what his job entailed, “We were winding down the war operations. All of my job there was dealing with sources bringing us information. I did some counterintelligence work there as well, because we only had one counterintelligence agent, so I kind of got detailed to assist him as well.”
One of the biggest challenges faced during Daniels’ time in Iraq was the rocket attacks. Daniels said, “They knew the Americans were getting ready to leave, and it was their last chance to enact some punishment on us. As we had less resources than they did during the heyday of the war, all the equipment got shipped back. So, we had less defenses. We were up in Mosul, and we were getting hit with rockets all the time. All the bases in the northwest at that time were. There's very little manpower on a very large base, and we weren't able to really pull adequate guard on such a large base with so few people. It was a base that was meant to hold 10,000 troops, and we've got 200 on it. We were essentially just at their mercy. It was kind of just waiting until the stops. Wait until you get tired or run out of ammunition and then go about your day until they restock.” While Daniels was there, one person from the National Guard unit lost his life. He was just three days from going home and a rocket landed right on his container and tore him open. Daniels considered himself fortunate to make it home without any injuries. Daniels deployment was four months long instead of 12 months due to the withdrawal happening. When President Obama was in office, he said everyone would be home by Christmas. Daniels made it home by Thanksgiving.
Daniels received the Army Commendation Medal for “outstanding service while serving as a Humint Collection Sergeant during Operation New Dawn. SPC Daniel’s superb performance of duty contributed to the overall success of the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Armored Division’s Mission. His actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect distinct credit upon himself, the 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Armored Division and the United States Army.”
Daniels loved being deployed and would have loved to continue serving overseas. After the withdrawal, he went to reenlist but was denied. Daniels explained, “I went to go reenlist because I heard they were going to Afghanistan next after another year break. I was told I was outside my enlistment window because it doesn't go off my contract extension and went off my actual original end date, and you have to reenlist a certain time before then. They were trying to draw down the size of the army, so they just had stricter rules on reenlistment.” Daniels decided to take the honorable discharge and use his GI Bill to attend college.
In 2013, Daniels enrolled at Ohio University of Athens and quickly made an impact at the university by starting the Veterans Center. Daniels was in a work study program working with a retired Air Force Senior Master Sergeant. Daniels wanted to do something meaningful and help Veterans who attended the university. Daniels shared, “We essentially handled when Veterans came to register for classes instead of going to the regular registrar. We had a small little file room that we turned into an office in the back of the registrar's office. We would assist Veterans with getting their GI Bill benefits, set up getting the paperwork done dealing with the VA, helping them with their decisions on what programs they wanted to take and what classes would actually qualify under the GI Bill to make sure they were not choosing classes that the GI bill wouldn't pay for.”
In May 2015, the Veterans Center was opened. Daniels shared the impact of the center, “The center enabled Veterans to be more comfortable speaking to other Veterans when they were going through the process. A lot of people were newly out of service and nervous and just wanted to speak with someone they had something in common with. It really helped because we had a lot of students using GI Bill benefits, and it wasn't just Veterans. It's also children of Veterans and spouses of Veterans who were able to use their Veterans GI Bill benefits.”
Daniels was also President of the Combat Veterans Club while at Ohio University.
He was able to participate in many charity events to raise money for some disabled Veterans and their children. Even though he was no longer in active service, Daniels continued to serve his country by supporting Veterans. Daniels was awarded the Pepsi Ohio University Campus Leadership Scholarship and the Outstanding Senior Leader Award for the work he did. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Center for International Studies.
Daniels missed graduation due to taking on another service opportunity, which sent him to Afghanistan to do counterintelligence work. Daniels stated, “I wasn't a uniform service member, but I was attached to Special Forces teams. I was a civilian serving as a contractor. I was on a flight to Kuwait on graduation day. I did not walk across the stage. I kind of wish I had just so my family could see me walk across the stage. My grandparents nor my parents went to college. I was the first one, so I kind of regret not giving them the opportunity to see me walk across the stage, but for me, college was done, and now it was time for the next thing. I absolutely loved the university and the people I knew up there. I would have loved to share that moment with them that last time. It was just a new opportunity came up, and I didn't want to miss it.”
While in Afghanistan, Daniels worked on insider threats. Daniels discussed his challenging job, “The Afghans had their own army that worked with us. We had trained them up and they were going on missions together with Americans. There had been a real problem with those Afghan partner forces turning their weapons on Americans. During missions, they would start shooting Americans instead of shooting the enemy. They were Taliban sympathizers, or people who were actually Taliban members, who had gained entry into the military just waiting for their chance to get a kill…I guess an American. It can really be anything. It can be their families held hostage, and if they don't kill an American, the family will be slaughtered. But if they do it, they'll be killed but their family will be taken care of. It could be coercion, ideology, money, or anything that could get them to turn. We were just looking for indicators of that and trying to prevent that from happening.”
In addition to this job, Daniels was able to also rescue a black kitten from Afghanistan that had two inches of her tail burned off. Fortunately, Daniels' team leader liked the cat and together they ended up raising enough money to rescue the cat. The cat was named Kia, after the Karzai International Airport, which was where she was found. Kia was able to come to the United States and stay with Daniels.
Daniels worked as Senior Counterintelligence Specialist from May 2016-May 2021. He then made his way back to Boyd County. Daniels received additional training paid for by the VA in technology for cybersecurity or information technology. He now works on a Cyber Threat Intelligence Team and is studying right now for a cyber threat intelligence certification. Daniels credits his time in the military for giving him the current opportunities. He is able to utilize concepts he already knew from his past work. “I’m just pointing those skills to a new domain. It just kind of seemed like a natural transition and way to still hunt for threats but just in a less dangerous manner and more modern way.”
When asked what it meant to have served his country and be a Veteran, Daniels shared, “I absolutely loved it. I love serving. It was the best decision I've ever made because it was like a chain reaction– it taught me responsibility and discipline. It taught me that the world's a lot crazier than I initially thought. But, it also got me out of here. It gave me worldly experience, and I got to experience a lot of things that other people probably never will. I couldn't imagine where I would be if I hadn't. I wouldn't want to imagine where I'd be if I hadn't.”
Between both in-service and work as a contractor, Daniels spent 66 months in combat zones. Now, he is looking forward to settling down and getting married to the love of his life this Saturday, November 11th. Thank you Daniels for your great commitment and passion toward service and fighting for the cause. Your impact not only in serving our country but your leadership in helping Veterans is worthy of praise.
