Daniel Fox
-Hawaii 2016-
Sergeant First Class Daniel Fox joined the US Army in 2000. He doesn’t look like a “wounded warrior” on the outside. He is fit, attractive, has all his extremities, and Daniel has a wife and two beautiful daughters. Like so many other servicemen, however, Daniel’s wounds are on the inside. After an incredible seventeen deployments in fifteen years, he has been around the world and in some of the most difficult zones in the war on terror. Daniel suffered three traumatic brain injuries and has severe PTSD; though invisible, these conditions are as crippling as any amputation.
​
Daniel’s memory loss and anger management issues come from the TBIs. His emotional distress from not only the brutality of war, but from the tremendous loss he has endured and the many brothers he has buried. As a result, he drowned himself in alcohol and painkillers. Daniel was on a path to destroying his life and losing his family. Only after he finally sought help at the Denver VA Health Center’s PTSD program was he able to come to terms with the enemies within and find a way to cope and heal.
We often speak of spouses “serving” as their partner is deployed. And for injured servicemen, spouses become caretakers as well. Krista Fox has served as admirably as any soldier. She has spent only a fraction of her marriage with her husband and began raising their daughters largely on her own.
​
She has endured Daniel’s rages, his depression, his addiction, and his absence, but worked tirelessly to stand by him. It wasn’t always easy. After all these years, Daniel refers to Krista as his “angel on earth” and he laments that they never had their honeymoon. As they work together to build a new life and to heal as a family, Vacations for Warriors was thrilled to offer them a dream vacation; a chance to have that honeymoon in paradise (with the kids), a chance to reward Krista’s support and dedication, and a chance to thank Daniel for his incredible service. The Fox family traveled to Hawaii in 2016.