AARON MYALL earned BRONZE STAR, COMBAT INFANTRY BADGE • DAD TO GRACE, 20, TWINS AVA AND GAVIN, 19, AND ELLA, 15 • speaks some arabic • HAS WORLD SERIES RING FROM WORKING CUBS SECURITY IN 2016
When Aaron Myall enlisted in the service after graduating from high school, he knew he didn't want to spend another four years in classrooms. What he didn't know was that he would spend the next 20 years in the service and become a member of the elite Green Beret special forces unit.
"I knew that I wasn't ready to go straight to college and I wouldn't have been successful, so I joined the Army as an infantryman," he said.
After completing basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1995, he served in California and then Swineford, Germany. His first deployment was to Kosovo during the last six months of 2002. He re-enlisted in 2003 and a year later, in January 2004, he was sent to Iraq for the first time. When he next returned to that country, it was as a Green Beret.
"My older brother (Jason) is also a Green Beret," he said.
"I really got pulled to their mission set of unconventional warfare, being part of an elite team," he continued. "And maybe it had something to do with not everybody was able to do it, so you push yourself."
He was sent to the Fifth Special Forces Group, 1st Battalion at Fort Campbell, Ky., and shortly after returned to Iraq. He made a second combat trip with the group to Afghanistan in 2011.
"The guys that I worked for, my leadership, were the guys that in 2002 or late 2001 were the first guys on the ground in Afghanistan, riding horses and leading the Northern Alliance to defeat the Taliban and accept the Taliban surrender."
With frequent but shorter overseas missions, he was able to see his family regularly. He got married in 2000 and his four children were born between 2004-09.
He eventually retired from the Army in 2015. He said coming home was not as difficult for him as for others.
"Even being in special operations, some of they guys, they had demons or they had something going on that they weren't able to deal with. Suicide has touched every aspect of the military, whether it's special forces or conventional forces or support forces. The mental health aspect has been difficult," he said.
He earned his degree and worked a few different jobs before landing at Agilant Solutions in February 2023. He also works during football season as the sophomore defensive coordinator at Hinsdale Central. He said he appreciates the Salute to Service night the Football Club sponsors, in part because it reminds teens that the military is an option after high school.
"It might give them an opportunity to go experience something else," he said. "I know without that, I would not be in the same position I am for sure."
The Army taught him structure, discipline and how to be part of a team. He became acutely aware of that when he become a Green Beret.
"Earning your Green Beret, that's just the first step to being on a team. I've done exactly what everybody else there already did. I might as well have been a private," he said.
He tells his athletes that they need go out and earn their spots on the team every day, even if they spend most of their time on the sidelines.
"There's only 11 guys on the field at any give time," he said. "There's some guys, if they can start now with high school football, understanding what their role is on the team and do their best, it will only help them in life, whatever they do, wherever they go."
Myall said he doesn't make a point of advertising that he was a Green Beret.
"It's part of who I am, but that's not who I am," he said.
- story by Pamela Lannom, photo by Jim Slonoff
