Military

Air Force Serviceman Finds Transformation in Wounded Warrior Program, Warrior Games as Part of PTSD Recovery

Air Force Master Sgt. Jason Ostberg participates in the 2025 Department of Defense Warrior Games field competition.

As Dianne Rahe watched her son, Master Sgt. Jason Ostberg, compete in the Warrior Games on Tuesday, she saw a completely different man.

Ostberg, who has served in the Air Force ^[1] since 2003, has dealt with PTSD throughout his service, creating a version of him that truly wasn't himself. But the man Rahe saw in the indoor rowing competition and in other Warrior Games events is a version she hadn't seen in years.

"He has come a long way," Rahe said as tears swelled in her eyes. "Just him in the short time he's been involved, he's been more calm, more happy. It's hard to explain but I see the amazing way he has changed being with these people, because these are his people."

Ostberg, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, has been part of the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program (AFW2) since December. Multiple deployment ^[2]s overseas combined with the physical impact and psychological damage involved with his work led him to seek help with the AFW2, although he was hesitant at first.

"Most of us are too tough to get help when we need it," said Ostberg, one of five brothers in the military. "We don't want to leave our friends on the battlefield by themselves so we keep doing the mission without thinking of ourselves."

Ostberg joined the AFW2 program with his wife, Pam, and two young kids in the forefront of his mind.

"I was able to get some help for myself, but mostly for my family because they deserve it," Ostberg said.

The AFW2 program provides personalized care, services and advocacy to seriously wounded, ill and injured airmen. Adaptive sports, including the Warrior Games, are just one element of the program.

Ostberg was one of 40 selected to represent the Air Force after trials in March. He is competing in field, indoor rowing, precision air, sitting volleyball, swimming and wheelchair basketball.

The AFW2 program has changed Ostberg's life for the better in just a short seven months, including helping him rediscover his love of swimming. Ostberg was a competitive swimmer in high school, but he stopped after joining the Air Force at 20.

"The first time I got in a pool again, it changed my whole perspective," Ostberg said. "I didn't feel that before. I didn't know that's what I needed to get back into it. Now I look forward to it. It's awesome."

Ostberg will compete in the Warrior Games swimming competition Saturday, which also will be his 42nd birthday.

The program also has helped Ostberg by providing a community of people he can relate to and confide in.

"It's a drastic change to go from stopping working out, going outside, hanging out with friends, not doing anything for myself to now having 40 family members plus the staff ... I can't put into words how much I'm thankful for all of that," Ostberg said.

The camaraderie with the other Air Force athletes was apparent during the indoor rowing competition, which included four-minute, one-minute and relay competitions. After each event Ostberg went around high-fiving his teammates in blue, as well as those from the other teams.

"Everyone is his people, but being here, he is one of them so they can talk and hang out and feel like family," Rahe said. "It's amazing to watch him compete with all his friends. I wish he got involved with it a long time ago. He's loving it."

Going into the Warrior Games, Ostberg didn't have the expectation of winning a gold medal. However, he retained his competitive nature so it was no surprise when he won gold in his class for the one-minute rowing competition Tuesday.

It was his third medal of the Warrior Games after taking gold in precision air and a bronze in wheelchair basketball. With three more events, there's a good chance the medal won't be his last.

But as he received his gold medal at the indoor rowing medal ceremony, he wasn't thinking about the gold; he was thinking about the people who got him there.

"Taking that first step is the hardest part, but once you're in the door you're vulnerable to all these people and you realize they're going through the same thing," Ostberg said. "You can't put a price on it. I can't put into words what it has meant, the amount of support even from those that don't know you.

"You don't have to win a gold medal, we are just out here competing and supporting one another."

Visit www.gazette.com ^[3].

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.^[4]

Pentagon Tightens Rules on Getting Medical Waivers to Join the Military

Secretary of Defense Hegseth attends a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Associated Press | By David Klepper

Published July 22, 2025 at 5:03pm ET

WASHINGTON — People with congestive heart failure, undergoing treatment for schizophrenia or who have a history of paraphilic disorders will no longer be eligible for a medical waiver to serve in the military, according to new rules issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The guidance signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ^[1] updates a list of conditions that disqualify potential recruits from serving in the armed forces. The decision comes after the Pentagon announced earlier this year that it would ban transgender troops ^[2] and review other medical conditions that are currently eligible for a waiver.

"America’s warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions," Hegseth wrote in the memo announcing the changes. “Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow service members.”

Waivers have long been used to enlist young people who might otherwise be unqualified for military service due to a wide array of medical, conduct or other reasons.

Most waivers are issued for medical conditions ranging from asthma, eyesight problems or skin disorders to more complex health conditions, such as past psychological illness or previous sports injuries that may have healed but still must be evaluated.

Prior to the new rules, heart failure, current treatment for schizophrenia and a history of paraphilic disorders — defined as a persistent sexual interest in atypical objects or activities — were among a long list of physical and mental health conditions in which waivers were allowed.

Multiple sclerosis, a history of cystic fibrosis, past organ transplants or a suicide attempt within the past 12 months also will be considered disqualifying conditions that make a person illegible for service.

The new rules list several conditions in which a waiver may only be granted by the secretary of a military branch. Those conditions include a missing eye, hand or foot, past corneal transplants, liver failure, kidney disease, past psychotic disorders or the presence of an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator.

The detailed rules ^[3] governing which medical conditions quality for a waiver have come under greater scrutiny amid the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops.

New rules required active duty troops as well as National Guard and Reserve troops to identify themselves as transgender and voluntarily leave the service ^[4] or face involuntary separations.

Sailors, Marines Train to Create a Lethal Joint Force

Sailors assigned to the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit recently completed a Composite Training Unit Exercise, successfully demonstrating their ability to jointly create a lethal, warfighting force.

Marine Officer Who Faced Charges for Criticizing Military Leaders Now Leads Promotion Review

Lt. Col. Stu Scheller leaves court-martial.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stood up yet another review process -- this time focused on officer promotions. It will be run by a Marine officer who rose to fame slamming the Biden administration over its Afghanistan withdrawal, according to a video and memo released Sunday ^[1].

"America's sons and daughters who serve in our military deserve the best leaders commanding them, which is why we need to reform the promotion system at DoD," Hegseth said in the video, while offering no specifics on what he believed the problems were.

This review is just the latest of several that Hegseth has ordered since taking the top military post. Since January, the defense secretary also has ordered the Pentagon to review combat standards ^[2], disqualifying medical conditions for military service ^[3], physical fitness and body standards ^[4], homeschooling support ^[5], and the withdrawal from Afghanistan ^[6].

The memo, which was posted online ^[8] Sunday alongside Hegseth's video, said that the promotion and selection review will look at officer evaluations, promotion and command selection boards, and how professional military education is conducted "in order to enhance the lethality of the force."

The memo was dated June 20, 2025.

Officials at the Pentagon wouldn't offer any further details on what the department felt needed changing among those topics, but the man charged with leading the effort has previously said that the military had "weak leadership" that needed "eliminating."

Running the review will be one-time Marine Lt. Col. Stu Scheller who gained fame in 2021 amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ^[9] for his public videos in which he sharply criticized other senior military officers and leaders in the Biden administration. In one social media post, Scheller said that he would make a public recommendation of charges of dereliction of duty against Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then the head of U.S. Central Command.

"Unlike the Marine generals who failed you in the previous administration, my generation will not fail," Scheller said in his post while referring to President Donald Trump.

In October 2021, Scheller pleaded guilty to six charges that stemmed from four videos and other posts he uploaded to social media sites. The charges ranged from disrespecting public officials to conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

At his trial, Scheller argued that his videos and critiques were "about Americans and not about divisions, to include Republican and Democrat."

"This is about accountability of my senior leaders, not about politics," Scheller said in court.

Yet in a blog post made Jan. 20 ^[10], Scheller took a much more partisan tone against the Biden administration.

"I am sure the national security situation left by the incompetence of the last administration will monopolize [Hegseth's] time," Scheller wrote.

Scheller joined the Pentagon after Hegseth's confirmation and has been working as a senior adviser to Jules Hurst, the man performing the duties of the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

"We need to have officers who understand where their compass is," Hegseth said in the video posted Sunday, adding that such officers are "not risk averse, they're not playing the game, they're not simply checking the box to get to the next level, which creates all the wrong incentives."

Hegseth described Scheller as someone who "had the courage to speak up when no one else would."

However, Scheller declined to talk to Military.com about his role in overseeing the newly announced review, and he has previously declined to talk about his role in the Pentagon's ongoing review of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Broadly, the military's promotion process has had complaints from officers over the years.

A Government Accountability Office report from last year ^[11] did find that, while each of the services generally incorporated the same practices into the promotion process, such as training and guidance, they varied in their implementation of those processes.

Most senior officers charged with rating their subordinates have only a limited amount of top blocks to dole out, and while that may promote competition among junior leaders to get those coveted ratings, it has led to many complaints about a system that values inflated evaluation criteria and politicking.

The memo released Sunday made no mention of any deadlines for a report or a summary of conclusions. Each of the military services had until Monday to provide Scheller a point of contact for the review.

-- Drew Lawrence contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2025 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here ^[13].

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