Ron Young

Chief Warrant Officer Ron Young grew up outside Atlanta in Lithia Springs, Georgia, and dreamed of flying at an early age. He joined the U.S. Army in 1999 and, upon completing flight school at Ft. Rucker, AL, chose the Apache Longbow as his advanced airframe. During his first duty assignment at Ft. Hood, TX, with the 1st Calvary Division’s 227th Aviation Regiment, he participated in the JTF-6 mission. He also helped develop a Joint Shipboard Operations SOP for the services, becoming one of the first pilots to operate Longbow Apaches aboard Naval carriers.

On February 7, 2003, Mr. Young was deployed to Iraq as part of Iraqi Freedom and, during one of the first combat missions of the invasion, was shot down on the night of March 22, 2003. He and copilot Chief Warrant Officer David Williams eluded Iraqi capture for two and a half hours. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to rescue the pilots under intense fire, and the pilots were eventually captured after running across an enemy patrol outside the town of Karbala. Mr. Young and his fellow prisoners were held under deteriorating conditions for 23 days. However, a fortunate turn of events involving 35 Marines from D. Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, inside the town of Samarra led to the rescue of Young, Williams, and five other POWs following Baghdad’s fall.

Mr. Young has worked as a CNN special contributor for The War on Terror, participated in CBS’s “Amazing Race,” served as a White House political appointee for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and conducted press advance for a sitting President. He continued serving in the Georgia Army National Guard from 2006 to 2014 as an Army Aviation Safety Officer and Maintenance Officer in Co C. 2-151 AVN. He also simultaneously served as the State’s Counterdrug Taskforce Operations Officer. Mr. Young has deployed four times, is an Eagle Scout, and has earned the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal with Valor, and Prisoner of War Ribbon. 

After leaving the military in 2014, Chief Young continued to fly search and rescue in the offshore oil fields of the Gulf and as a helicopter EMS pilot. After briefly flying as an airline pilot, Mr. Young hung up his wings after more than two decades to pursue a fresh calling that placed him in seminary at Liberty University. Ron Young is currently a few classes away from a Master of Divinity in Chaplaincy. He serves in several ministry capacities, aiming to use his knowledge and skills to help veterans and civilians address adversity, trauma, stress, and abuse.