At first glance, the video is pretty simple.
An older Green Beret walks down a street at Fort Bragg, talking into a camera and reflecting on the uncomfortable realization that somewhere along the way, he and the guys he once considered the “young dudes” became the senior leaders.
What viewers can’t see is arguably the most important part of the story.
The camera only captures Chief Warrant Officer Two Nick Lavery from roughly the chest up.
It doesn’t show the prosthetic leg underneath him.
And it certainly doesn’t show what it took for Lavery to still be walking around in a Green Beret uniform more than a decade after an insider attack in Afghanistan nearly ended both his life and his military career.
In the Instagram reel, Lavery says he is leaving a Special Forces Qualification Course graduation in Fayetteville when the reality of how much time has passed begins to hit him.
He talks about the men he came through the ranks with — the guys he “cut [his] teeth with” and learned the Special Forces business alongside.
Then one day you look around and those same guys are colonels, lieutenant colonels, command sergeants major and senior warrant officers.
“when did that happen?” Lavery jokes in the video.
Not long ago, at least in his mind, they were twenty-something-year-old Green Berets running around the mountains of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now they’re the people responsible for leading and mentoring the next generation.
Lavery calls that responsibility “awesome” and says it is “wild how fast it goes by.”
It’s the kind of reflection any career Soldier can probably understand.
But Lavery isn’t exactly just another aging Green Beret wondering where the years went.
Lavery is a Special Forces warrant officer whose military career includes one of the more remarkable combat-injury recoveries in the modern Army.
Chief Warrant Officer Two Nick Lavery was serving in Afghanistan in 2013 when his Special Forces detachment was struck by an insider attack. Lavery survived, but the wounds ultimately resulted in the loss of his leg. He spent the following year undergoing surgeries and rehabilitation, including learning to use a prosthetic at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
For plenty of Soldiers, that would have been the end of an Army career — and nobody reasonable would have questioned it.
Lavery had another idea.
He refused medical retirement and instead began working toward returning to operational status. In 2015, after completing an extensive assessment of his ability to continue operating, Lavery returned to his Special Forces detachment and subsequently deployed back to Afghanistan for combat operations.
He is considered the first Special Forces operator to return to combat as an above-the-knee amputee.
That’s an important piece of context when watching the reel.
The guy casually walking down the street talking about getting old with his buddies had to fight simply for the opportunity to keep doing the job.
And Lavery’s recovery wasn’t about finding a comfortable position somewhere in the formation and riding out the rest of a career.
He kept going.
The Global SOF Foundation credits Lavery as the first amputee in military history to complete the Special Forces Warrant Officer Technical and Tactical Certification Course, the Special Operations Combatives Program Instructor Course and the Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course.
That last one is worth thinking about for a second.
Combat Diver Qualification is a demanding Special Forces course for able-bodied operators.
Lavery completed it missing a leg above the knee.
His continued operational service isn’t just something repeated in motivational-speaker biographies, either. An official Defense Visual Information Distribution Service photograph from April 2023 identifies CW2 Nick Lavery as a Green Beret with 5th Special Forces Group while working with Spanish military and law-enforcement personnel during RESCUE-OPS II in Alicante, Spain.
And in the Instagram video discussed here, Lavery can be seen wearing CW2 rank.
His decorations give another indication of just how much history is walking through the frame.
The Global SOF Foundation lists his awards as including the Silver Star, three Purple Hearts, multiple Bronze Stars — including a Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor — the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medals, Joint Service decorations and Army commendation and achievement medals.
He has also received the Special Operations Command Excalibur Award.
The Army itself previously documented Lavery’s story in a three-part 5th Special Forces Group video series titled “Best Foot Forward,” chronicling his service, combat wounds and eventual return. In the second episode, released in 2020, the Army described the attack and Lavery’s survival as a turning point that permanently changed his life.
He later became an author as well, writing Objective Secure: The Battle-Tested Guide to Goal Achievement, a book built around the methodology and mindset he used while fighting his way back to operational status.
That’s what makes the short reel more interesting than another senior Soldier making jokes about getting old.
Lavery isn’t giving a speech about his injuries.
He isn’t showing the camera his prosthetic.
He isn’t listing his medals or reminding viewers that he returned to combat after losing a leg.
He’s simply looking around at the people he grew up with professionally and realizing the young Green Berets who once ran around Afghanistan and Iraq are now colonels, command sergeants major and senior warrant officers.
And they’re responsible for the next group.
“We were these young, you know, 20-something-year-old knuckleheads,” Lavery remembers in the video before talking about how those same men now occupy positions carrying an enormous responsibility to mentor others.
For anyone scrolling past without knowing his name, Lavery might look like exactly what the video suggests: an aging Green Beret having one of those when the hell did we get old? moments.
But there’s a lot happening below the camera frame.
The man walking through Fayetteville is doing it on a prosthetic leg after surviving an insider attack, refusing medical retirement, returning to Special Forces, redeploying to Afghanistan and continuing a career in one of the Army’s most demanding communities.
Maybe that’s part of why his comment about time passing lands differently.
Nick Lavery didn’t just get older in Special Forces.
He fought like hell for the opportunity to grow old there.
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