‘Warrior for change:’ Iraq War veteran returns to Sonoma County for Memorial Day events

Darkness came upon Dan Nevins five years ago, following the 36th surgery on what was left of his legs after a roadside bomb blast in Iraq a decade earlier.

Recuperating at his Florida home, Nevins, a former Windsor resident, took a leave from his job with the Wounded Warrior Project and found himself isolated. Divorced and unable to care for his young daughter, he finally had to face the wounds to his mind.

“I was basically going stir-crazy, sitting at home, nobody to call and nothing to do,” he said.

He swallowed allergy medicine and whiskey to sleep, but nightmares awakened him.

Nevins suffered from traumatic brain injury along with below-knee amputation of both legs, once strong, his best physical feature and the foundation for his vigorous life.

But he had never identified with post traumatic stress syndrome; never understood the statistic that 22 veterans were dying by suicide per day, one every 65 minutes.

Instead, Nevins acknowledged what he calls his “invisible wounds of war,” and kept them at bay with physical activity, golf, hiking, cycling and horseback riding.

After he was laid up by surgery in 2014, the darkness seemed inescapable.

“I wasn’t suicidal but for the first time ever I got it,” he said in an interview. “I knew I needed help.”

It came from a place he never would have imagined: Nevins is now an international yoga teacher and motivational speaker.

Nevins, 46, led a free yoga class at Santa Rosa's Tone fitness studio on Sunday, just after speaking about his experience as a wounded veteran at nearby Old Courthouse Square.

On Monday, he will be the keynote speaker at Santa Rosa Memorial Park’s 48th annual Avenue of the Flags Memorial Day celebration, starting at 10 a.m. It’s a meaningful place for Nevins, with the jet-black granite Honor Bench inscribed with the names of the 10 local service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of them is Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ottolini of Sebastopol, who was driving the Humvee, with Nevins in a back seat, on the pitch-black morning of Nov. 10, 2004, when it ran over a hidden bomb, a 155 mm artillery shell that blasted the truck 6 feet in the air.

Ottolini was killed, and Nevins found himself halfway out of the vehicle, blood spurting from his shattered legs. He spent 18 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and was ultimately fitted with a pair of prosthetic legs.

Both men were deployed to Iraq with the California National Guard's Santa Rosa-based 579th Engineer Battalion. Nevins, who earned a bachelor's degree in business management at Sonoma State University, worked as a pharmaceutical salesman.

Nevins is one of about 1,650 U.S. troops who have lost hands, arms, legs or feet in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, most of them from roadside bombs, which the military calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

Five years ago, Nevins, a resident of Ponte Vedra Beach on Florida’s east coast since 2006, turned to a friend for help, and she said: “Dan, you need some yoga in your life.”

He told her it was “the dumbest (expletive deleted) thing you’ve ever said.”

“I’m a dude, I don’t do yoga. I don’t own spandex, that’s ridiculous,” he said in the interview.

But ultimately, he committed to three yoga lessons, spent a bundle on a yoga shirt, shorts and mat at the Lululemon activewear store and showed up at a Jacksonville Beach yoga studio. His first experience with the spiritual, mental and physical practice dating back to ancient India was torture.

It was hot and Nevins couldn’t find his balance, crucial to yoga, on his metal legs.

“I was miserable,” he said.

Commitments are something Nevins takes seriously, so he returned for a second lesson. It started out as badly as the first - until he said, “Can I just do this with my legs off?”

That was a bold step because Nevins had never let anyone see his atrophied lower legs that fit inside the socket of his prostheses. But the result was spectacular.

He struck a Warrior I yoga pose, envisioning roots growing out of his body, then lifted his arms straight over his head.

“In that moment, the Earth, the actual planet, sent this jolt of energy up in my body and lit me up from the inside out,” he said. “I felt 8 feet tall and more powerful than I’ve ever felt in my life. It was like the Earth was saying, ‘Dan, where have you been?’?”

At the third lesson, Nevins signed up for yoga teacher training. He has since taught yoga on the White House lawn (during the Obama administration), in Africa, Germany, Canada, Mexico, China and all over the United States, typically in classes of 100 or more and once to 1,800 people in New York City.

“Yoga saved my life,” he said. “It’s been my journey ever since. I tell stories and I teach yoga.”

The jolt in the yoga studio and the explosion in Iraq were both transformative experiences, he said.

Nevins said he encourages people from all walks of life, veterans in particular, to take up the practice.

It’s been 15 years since the blast in Iraq, and Nevins said he is totally pain-free, enjoying sports and committed to a new purpose in life.

An eligible bachelor, he said he would like to lose a bit of weight, but feels “pretty good” for a man his age. He shed his Army National Guard uniform years ago, but enjoys shooting rifles and still considers himself a warrior.

“I’m a warrior for change,” he said. “I’m committed to a peaceful, nonviolent life.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @guykovner.