EDITOR’S NOTE — Veteran Voices is an annual week-long series introducing WYDaily readers to some of our local veterans. Each story represents a different person in the Historic Triangle communities and shares their stories of service.
TOANO— Logan Brokaw, a Toano resident and U.S. Army veteran, knew he was going to be in the Army as a kid.
“I didn’t come from a long lineage of service members, but I was that kid that when ‘Top Gun’ came out, it sparked my interest in the military. Later on, in high school, I decided that I was going to join the Army. I just wanted to do something a little different, I’m pretty patriotic, and I just wanted to defend the country,” Brokaw said.
Brokaw found his way to the Army in 2003. He deployed 15 times; three times to Afghanistan, once to Iraq, and 11 Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS) missions.
“It was definitely the path least followed in the military. I did spend a good portion of my time in Special Operations, which was pretty cool and unique,” Brokaw said.
Brokaw was training in 2018 in Arizona when he suffered a life-altering accident.
“I was training to become a free-fall instructor for the Army. I was training up to do a certification course in January of 2019. On the last day of the training cycle, I came in to do a landing and I messed up and wound up hitting the ground at 50 miles an hour,” Brokaw said.
Brokaw suffered fractures in his T11, T12, L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5 vertebra in his spine. His fracture in his L2 vertebra was the main cause of his spinal cord injury, which ultimately led to paralysis.
“Right as I was sitting on the drop zone, I knew I had broken my back and I knew that I had a spinal cord injury. I didn’t know how bad it was, but I knew that it wasn’t just a typical injury. I knew in that moment that my life had changed forever,” Brokaw recalls.
He was airlifted to the hospital in Phoenix and was immediately sent into surgery and was then placed into a medically induced coma for two weeks. After coming out of his coma, the conversations around his recovery and what life would look like began to take place.
“From early on, I had a pretty optimistic outlook, not in the sense of I’m going to recover and be back to my life, it was just maybe kind of an acceptance of it. I needed to put my focus on understanding that this was what happened instead of dwelling on not finishing my career or never walking again. I shifted my focus in a way, and it definitely helped mentally, but not every day was a good day,” Brokaw said.
Early on in his recovery, Brokaw’s wife called the Semper Fi & America’s Fund to help the family as they navigated Logan’s recovery timeline.
“One of the things that helped greatly was my support system that I had. My family, my friends, my unit, things like the Semper Fi & America’s Fund. I knew that my support system was really good so I could focus on recovery and navigating my way into my new life,” Brokaw said.
After establishing a connection with the Semper Fi & America’s Fund, Brokaw got to participate in the fund’s Spinal Cord Injury Retreat in Virginia Beach in September 2024. That initiative brought together 11 veterans who formed a new community of support, finding strength in one another that had been missing in their lives.
“Getting together in person with other service members with spinal cord injuries, it’s great to be around people who are in similar circumstances with you, you learn from them, you can teach each other, there is so much community that is beneficial there. It’s good to get out there with people who are going through similar struggles that you are and share in that,” Brokaw said.
While he is paralyzed, Brokaw says that he is still living every single day to the fullest and it’s partly thanks to the Semper Fi & America’s Fund.
“The fund really provided peace of mind that there are people looking out for those affected. They’ve been with me since the beginning,” Brokaw said.
Though he may be confined to a wheelchair, Brokaw is active in the Toano community. He currently coaches his son’s baseball team and enjoys hand-cycling, shooting sports and sit skiing. He also has his pilot’s license and hopes to one day fly again using hand controls.
Through the adversity, Brokaw says that he treasures his time in the service and would do it all again if his country called on him.
The Semper Fi & America’s Fund is always seeking donations and volunteers. More information can be found on thefund.org.
Semper Fi & America’s Fund 2025 Double Down for Veterans Match Campaign Powered by The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation and PXG runs through the end of the year. The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation and Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG) are matching every donation made to Semper Fi & America’s Fund, dollar-for-dollar up to $7.5 million. You can donate at thefund.org/match.