Original article by Controversial Times
You’ve probably heard the story of Jason Everman, the musician who played for two extremely well known bands, but ultimately ended up having an accomplished military career. If you haven’t heard the story, you’ve probably at least seen this meme floating around social media.
However, Jason’s life path was far more than could be put into a single meme (as accurate as it may be).
Everman tells how punk rock initially became the soundtrack of his life as a young man. So much so that he ended up doing it for a living.
Everman had a unique musical career. He was obviously talented enough to play for two iconic bands – Nirvana and Sound Garden, however, he was unable to hold positions in either band.
Following that Everman still played and was a working musician, but talks about how he was no longer getting enjoyment out of the activity of playing music. Enter the military.
Everman says he was influenced by a filmmaker friend who was a Navy SEAL in his early life. His friend told him that despite all of his accomplishments, his time serving his country was the time he was most proud of. This led Everman to abandon his musical career and enter the Army in 1994 at the age of 27.
“At that point in time, in the world I was in, going into the military was probably the most uncool thing you could ever do. As soon as I raised my right hand and took that oath of enlistment whatever cool creds I had were fucking gone,” Everman says.
Shortly after joining the Army, Everman joined the 2nd Ranger Battalion and then advanced to the 3rd Special Forces Group. All in all Everman served 12 years. He did multiple tours of duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
He rose to the rank of Sergeant First Class before being honorably discharged in 2006.
Following his service, Everman continued his non-traditional life course. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2013. According to a Daily Beast article from 2014, Everman still regularly goes overseas as a military consultant.