Episode 64 - COL Shawn Daniel, USA (Ret): Combat, Leadership, and Finding Purpose After Service
In this episode of Tipping Spears with Hannah Becker, I sit down with Colonel (Ret.) Shawn Daniel, a West Point graduate, Ranger Hall of Fame inductee, and veteran of eight combat deployments across Afghanistan and Iraq. With more than two decades of service as an Infantry officer, Shawn commanded at the company and battalion level and served as an operations officer for units ranging from 600 to over 4,000 personnel in combat. His awards include four Bronze Stars, reflecting a career defined by disciplined leadership and team performance under pressure.
We explore the realities of military service at the highest levels, including what it takes to lead elite teams in combat and how those lessons translate beyond the battlefield. Shawn offers candid insight into the transition from military life to the civilian world, reflecting on the challenges of retirement, identity, and the search for purpose after service. He also speaks directly to the issue of veteran suicide, sharing why connection, community, and mission still matter long after the uniform comes off.
Now serving as the Executive Director of Darby’s Warrior Support, Shawn has dedicated his post-military life to helping fellow veterans heal and rediscover purpose. Through all-inclusive hunting and fishing experiences for the special operations community, his organization is addressing the invisible wounds of war in a practical and deeply human way. This is a conversation about leadership, resilience, and what it means to keep serving when the mission changes.
Guest Bio:
Colonel (Retired) Shawn Daniel claims Little Rock, Arkansas as home. He’s a 1987 graduate of Catholic High School for Boys, a 1993 graduate of the United States Military Academy, and a 2014 graduate of the National Security Fellowship Program at the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, Massachusetts.
As an Infantry officer, Shawn served in a number of different assignments from Korea, to Anchorage, to Boston, to Tampa – and many places in between. He served with the finest Americans we have wearing the uniform, commanded a company and a battalion in combat, and served as the Operations Officer in combat for units ranging in size from 600 to over 4,000 Personnel.
Shawn served 7 tours in Afghanistan and 1 tour in Iraq accumulating more than 5 years worth of combat deployments. His awards and decorations include 4 Bronze Stars, the combat infantryman badge, the master parachutist badge with combat star and a number of other awards and decorations that largely represent the hard work of his subordinates and Teammates. Shawn was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in July 2022 and the Arkansas Game and Fish Hall of Fame in August 2024.
Shawn retired in 2017 and after a four year stint in corporate America, he now runs Darby’s Warrior Support, 501(c)(3). DWS hosts veterans of the Special Operations community on all-inclusive hunting and fishing trips in an effort to help them cope with the wounds of war and successfully transition to the civilian sector.
Shawn has been married to the former Dena Wortsmith for more than 27 years, 18 moves and 8 combat deployments. They have two great and wildly successful kiddos and a fantastic son-in-law – Katie Grace and her husband Seth White - both graduates of the University of Alabama, Roll Tide!, and now in the medical field in Birmingham, and Jake, a recent graduate of the University of Arkansas – Go Hogs, who is on the cusp of starting his own business in excavating! Of all the things Shawn has done in his life, the greatest job he’ll tell you he ever had was, being a Dad.
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