Vets for Freedom Leadership

Pete Hegseth, Chairman

Pete Hegseth served in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division for their deployment to Iraq from 2005-2006. Pete served as an infantry Platoon Leader in Baghdad during the nationwide elections in October and December 2005, and as a Civil-Military Operations officer in Samarra. He also served in Guantanamo Bay for a year on a security mission with his National Guard unit and currently serves in the 1-69 Infantry, New York Army National Guard as a Captain. Pete holds the Bronze Star for his time in Iraq. He is a Minnesota native and graduate of Princeton University. He lives with his wife in New York City.

David Bellavia, Vice Chairman & Founder

David is a former Army Staff Sergeant who served in the First Infantry Division (Task Force 2-2). He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor for actions he took in a fierce urban firefight in the Battle of Fallujah. David and his platoon were the subject of a Time magazine cover story title, Into The Hot Zone. David has also been nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross, and received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for valor, and the Conspicuous Service Cross. Recently he was invited to attend the President's State of the Union address as an honored guest. He has been inducted into the New York Veterans Hall of Fame. David returned to Iraq in June 2006 as an embedded reporter with the Iraqi Army. Bellavia's memoir of his time in Iraq, House to House, will be released by Simon & Schuster in September 2007. He lives Western New York. 

 
Joel Arends, Executive Director 

Joel Arends served in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division for their deployment to Iraq in 2004. Joel served as an infantry Platoon Leader in Baghdad and provided security for Iraqis as they went to the polls for the first free and fair elections held there in the last fifty years. He currently serves in the United States Army Reserve as a Captain. Joel holds the Bronze Star for his time in Iraq. He was recognized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as one of the fifty heroes in the Global War on Terror and has been profiled in Investor's Business Daily. He is an Iowa native and holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Dakota. He lives with his wife and two children in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

 
Christopher Ahn, Director of Operations 

Christopher Ahn is a former Marine Sergeant who deployed to Iraq with the 5th Battalion 14th Marine Regiment, Provisional Military Police battalion in 2005-2006. Although formally trained as a Forward Observer, Christopher served as the chief analyst for all detention facility operations within the al Anbar province and was later selected by his battalion as the Deputy Chief of Intelligence. Christopher is a successful entrepreneur and has worked as a consultant for multiple Fortune 100 companies. Christopher is an honors graduate from the University of California, Irvine.

Vets for Freedom Founders

Knox Nunnally

Knox is a former Marine Infantry Captain who served three consecutive deployments to Iraq with the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. He holds a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. Knox is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and lives in Austin, Texas.

Mark Seavey

Mark Seavey is a former Army National Guard Sergeant. Mark served in Afghanistan for over a year as an infantry squad leader in the Third Battalion, 116 Infantry, based in Woodstock, Virginia. He works for a veterans' organization in Washington and lives in Virginia. He is a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.

Joe Dan Worley

Former Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Joe Dan “Doc” Worley served in Iraq as a US Navy Corpsman. He was an infantry platoon medic in Second Battalion, First Marines in Fallujah in 2004. In September 2004, Joe Dan’s platoon was targeted in a coordinated ambush. As he was running to the aid of two comrades mortally wounded by an IED, Joe Dan was hit by a secondary IED that blew off his leg, and he was shot five times in the attack. Miraculously, he survived and he was able to tie his own tourniquet and begin shouting instructs to aid in the treatment the other wounded Marines. After 18 months of rehabilitation at Bethesda and Walter Reed, he now lives in Georgia with his wife and daughter. He holds a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. 

Wade Zirkle 

Wade Zirkle is a former Marine Lieutenant who served two deployments to Iraq, first with Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (Camp Lejeune, N.C.) and most recently with the Camp Pendleton, California-based infantry unit Second Battalion, First Marines (2/1) in 2004. Wade fought in the invasion of Iraq and the First Battle for Fallujah and is a recipient of The Purple Heart. In 2006 he returned to Iraq for the third time -this time as a civilian reporter- where he was embedded with the Iraq Army in Ramadi. Wade is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and is from Shenandoah County, Virginia.