A Combat Veteran’s Journey From the Front Lines to Off-Road Racing

“I took a look in the mirror and [realized] I’m going down the wrong path,” he said.

He shifted focus to his recovery process and getting healthy again. Less than two years later, he volunteered to return to Iraq with his same unit, giving him the closure that many wounded veterans don’t have.

“Whatever that was inside me, that resiliency, that’s what drove me,” he said.

New beginnings

In 2011, Hamm had an idea to build a motorcycle with other wounded combat veterans and take it to the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. The show is an enormous trade event for the automotive specialty equipment industry.

“All those combat vets that helped me do that saw the change that happened to me,” he said. “They knew my story; I knew their story. We were having that brotherhood, that camaraderie.”

Following the show, their enthusiasm for motorcycle building led them to expand into other types of projects, giving rise to The Warrior Built Foundation.

Since 2012, the nonprofit has built trucks, cars and motorcycles, and even races them in competitions like the Baja 1000 and the California 300.

Along with their fabrication bays in Lake Elsinore, California, the group has a music studio and a therapy room where patrons can utilize programs that engage them in various types of healing practices. The programs normalize finding ways to cope with the fear, anxiety and PTSD resulting from combat, and serve as a real-life example of alternative therapy.

“If I had never started Warrior Built, honestly, it would be hard for me to imagine that right now, because of how much it’s brought into my life — how many friends I’ve met, how many people I’ve helped,” said Hamm. “I’m married again and had two more beautiful girls in my life. My life is 100 percent different.”