Retired and decorated Green Beret Jason Van Camp could have done anything he wanted after hanging up his uniform. Instead, he chose to create opportunities for other warriors.
“I was born in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s and I grew up in Virginia, just across the Potomac River. It was pretty clear that the enemy was the Russians and, of course, the Dallas Cowboys. That’s how I grew up as a big Washington, D.C., sports fan,” he laughed.
Van Camp was surrounded by the military; his father was a veteran of the Vietnam War who became a civilian contractor for the Department of Defense.
“As the saying goes, show me your friends and I’ll show you the future,” he shared. “I ended up going to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where I played football. I served a mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for two years. I lived in Russia during that time. Then, I came back to West Point and finished my junior and senior years before being commissioned as an officer in the military.”
He started as a field artillery officer and was at stationed at Fort Sill for his follow-on training when terrorists attacked America on 9/11.
“We watched the planes hit the Twin Towers, and then I heard there was another plane headed for D.C.,” Van Camp recalled. “We were no longer the Army that just trains all the time; I knew we were at war. They locked the base down tight and asked some of us if we’d be interested in becoming Rangers.”
The qualification process started with 200 candidates. Of the 12 who remained, nine accepted the chance to go to Ranger School, three graduated, and only one went on to become a Ranger: Van Camp.
“After deploying to Korea for a year, I joined the 101st Airborne Division for the invasion of Iraq. We didn’t see a lot of combat, but we did build a school and a police department. While there, I kept seeing the Special Forces guys. I was impressed by their professionalism, the confidence they had and how respected their work was.”
Upon returning from deployment, Van Camp submitted his paperwork for selection and was chosen to attend the qualification course, earning his Green Beret. He was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group.
“We immediately deployed to Iraq, and it was a tough one. Half of my team received Purple Hearts,” he shared. “We were sent to a remote, austere environment and told to establish a combat outpost. What we found was that the enemy, Al Qaeda at the time, had completely overrun this location. From day two, we were fighting all the time. Our team returned to the States for a few months and then we were back in Iraq again.”
Following his latest combat tour, Van Camp was assigned to Mali, Africa, where he began to experience health issues. Doctors suspected a parasite was causing tonic-clonic seizures. He was removed from his team and took on a leadership role in operations. When a doctor suggested brain surgery, he made the difficult decision to hang up his uniform and medically retire.
“I got my MBA and started noticing many people around me starting businesses. They seemed to be doing well, so I figured I’d try my hand at entrepreneurship,” Van Camp shared. “I started a for-profit company called Mission Six Zero, a leadership development company. I thought about how I’d spent the last 20 to 25 years at West Point, both in combat and special forces. I knew a thing or two about leadership and I was also interested in sports. So I said, ‘What if I can combine those two things?’ We started working with some NFL and MLB clients, teaching these skills to players and organizational leaders.”
Van Camp brought in friends from the Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Rangers, Marines and even a few Medal of Honor recipients. The team taught while sharing their stories and experiences. Many were injured, missing limbs or even blinded. He saw a gap in understanding the value of their work, so he brought in experts and doctors.
“While we were doing this, guys would tell me, ‘Jason, we had a purpose in the military, and now we don’t. We’re just kind of flapping out here, looking to serve again,’” he said.
The men working with the company expressed interest in starting their own businesses, recognizing that Van Camp had found his own purpose in “service after service.” Those conversations ran through his mind for a few months and led him to found Warrior Rising, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting veterans in entrepreneurship.
“In that first year, 2015, we raised about $90,000 and helped six veterans. I had never realized how difficult fundraising would be,” he laughed. “We continued to build, grow and grind. Last year, we were able to raise about $5 million.”
In 2020, Van Camp published a book sharing the lessons he’d learned about finding purpose and success, Deliberate Discomfort: How U.S. Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable, which became a bestseller.
For Van Camp, the motivation to pursue goals comes from love.
“Since its founding, Warrior Rising has created programs leveraging remote learning, built a network of mentors and coaches, and awarded grants that will help create 100 veteran-owned million-dollar businesses by the end of 2024. We also host numerous business showers each year, bringing in Fortune 500 companies and partners to support new veteran entrepreneurs.”
“For me, it was about people—people who counted on me, trusted me and believed in me. A lot of people will say motivation is about proving the haters wrong. For me, it was always about wanting to prove the believers right, and I’m always looking at it from a love perspective.”
When Van Camp isn’t running the nonprofit or his leadership and consulting company, he focuses on his wife and children. He’s also writing his second book and, laughingly, has a deep enjoyment of professional wrestling.
“Your past achievements are a good predictor of future success. When you constantly put yourself in difficult situations and you accept what I call ‘deliberate discomfort,’ you voluntarily, intentionally choose to put yourself in difficult situations. You’re going to grow from it. You’re going to learn, you’re going to improve, and you’re going to be even better.”
To learn more about Warrior Rising, click here.