Courtesy Photo | (Photo courtesy SSG Tyler Pollard) Team Army Coach Adriane Wilson watches SSG Tyler...... read more read more
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FALLS CHURCH, Va.- This is a story about an adaptive sports athlete. To understand where he is today, he shares what happened to him and his original attitude after being injured. “I'm just a single Soldier, and I don't have anything wrong with me. You know I'm invincible, right?” That’s what Staff Sgt. Tyler Pollard told his friend and eventual roommate at the Fort Bragg Soldier Recovery Unit after a drone exploded the building they were in on a deployment in the Middle East in 2023.
“I was exiting the building, the drone had landed, and the explosion went off. The blast ruptured my eardrums. I was blown about 10 feet from the ground into a wall; I shook it off and kept going. I got to the bunker and checked on all the accountability for all my personnel. I was super dazed and confused. I had a screaming headache, and I felt like my world was collapsing,” said Pollard.
The 30-year-old horizontal construction manager —which means roads, bridges, anything that is longer than taller— shared his road to the 2025 Army Trials April 1-10th at Fort Bliss, Texas. The Adaptive sports Soldier athlete almost didn’t arrive at this recovery point in his life. “I refused to go to an SRU. I had my medical issues, but I had to finish the mission. I will tell you I developed a behavioral health issue. My roommate on deployment was hurt pretty badly in the blast and was sent to the Fort Bragg Soldier Recovery Unit. He kept encouraging me to come to the SRU,” said Pollard, who was diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD.
Pollard was sent to the Fort Bragg SRU several months later, in 2024. His friend, Sgt 1st Class John Barna, became his roommate again. Still unconvinced this was the best move, Pollard further explained his issue. “Unfortunately, being at Fort Bragg, you know you hear airplanes flying all the time, and you know you can hear those propellers turning up, and it's just like instantly I just revert to where I was. I can hear the drone and begin to think this is a scary place. I know Fort Bragg is not a scary place for me, so trying to get over that feeling is why I am here.”
Whenever Pollard heard a propeller, he said he went into fight-or-flight mode. “It can be in the middle of the night, and you know they're jumping out of airplanes here, right? I have been underneath my bed at 2 a.m. before. Yes, I confess, I totally get why I am here at the SRU now.”
The North Carolina National Guardsman, through therapy and adaptive reconditioning program events, is facing his future with a better outlook. “I was in such a dark place when I got here. I always told John that the Adaptive Reconditioning Program saved my life. I also said I can't think ARP without thinking of you because you probably saved my life by making me go to ARP events when I didn’t want to.”
Adaptive sports have been a lifeline for Pollard, who’s been at training camps over the past few months while preparing for the upcoming Army Trials. "We just had our sports camp here at Bragg, and I fell in love with wheelchair basketball. I worked well with coach Rodney and hope I can make the team,” said Pollard, who will also compete in wheelchair rugby, air rifle, and pistol, sitting volleyball, archery, and field events.
“I've just been so thrilled with the opportunities and people I've met through ARP, like all the coaches. It’s been a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I hope it never fades away. Just building relationships with people is great, and at some point, I want to be able to set foot in their shoes and be able to give back to the community in that capacity,” he said, referring to working with his dad in the local school system as a coach after the military.
Preparing for Army Trials with adaptive sports has been a huge part of Pollard's recovery. He says it's about more than sports. “It’s the unbreakable bond of having people who have either similarly gone through the same things that I have or worse. Going to Warrior Games with any of these folks would be an honor, and to be able to do it for me, hopefully, one last time with Team Army on my chest, would be amazing.”
Loving his progress, Pollard unabashedly says he owes his life to the Army Recovery Care Program and all the opportunities it afforded him to get better. “This program, in a nutshell, gave me purpose to live, and it helped me refine who I am and find joy in life again.”
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2025 13:42 |
| Story ID: | 493785 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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