Be the One

For veterans arriving home after serving our country in combat, recovery can be a difficult process. Long after physical wounds have healed, the emotional wounds can be more challenging to treat. For Lori and Bruce Benedict of Benedict's Ace Hardware in Mountain View, Wyoming, supporting the Be the One initiative is a positive way to honor the service and sacrifice of their brother Tyrel Arnell.

Be the One is a nationwide American Legion project with a mission to raise awareness of veteran suicides and to try and bring the numbers down.

SFC William Tyrel Arnell served in the Army National Guard during the war in Afghanistan. He was 17 years old when he enlisted. He was deployed to Afghanistan, where he saw combat as a gunner in a Blackhawk helicopter. When his tour of duty was over, he returned home to his wife and infant son Jaxon. He struggled with PTSD and sought out counseling. For Tyrel, the strain became too much to bear, and he took his own life on Oct. 7, 2020.

As the family mourned the loss of Tyrel, they looked for ways to honor his memory and get the word out about veterans suffering from PTSD. The family organized the Tyrel Arnell Memorial Walk hosted at Benedict's Ace Hardware. They started the walk just two weeks after Tyrel's burial. In 2023, the family chose the Be the One project for the walk which aligns veterans in need of help with their local American Legion Post.

"We chose Be the One to be involved with our walk," said Lori. "My dad and I were discussing the walk and where the funds would go to, and he said 'I just want to see that I'm helping someone. I want to see that my son dying had a purpose.'"

The walk aligns with the mission of the Be the One project: to ask veterans in your life how they are doing, to listen when a veteran needs to talk, and to reach out when a veteran is struggling.

"These soldiers, they live with a lot of things that nobody else understands," said Bruce. "We as communities, families, and businesses, we need to make sacrifices for those who need the help and help them any way we can. At the end of the day, the walk will be successful if we can help even one person."

Thanks to the walk, Tyrel will be remembered, and his spirit of helpfulness lives on with everyone who reaches out to veterans in need.

"Even though he was suffering, I can't even remember the number of people that came to us at his funeral who expressed how he had helped them in their lives," said Ike Arnell, Tyrel's Dad. "I'd like people to understand that these people are actual loving, living people that are fighting a wound that just isn't visible."