Brad Snyder: The Most Meaningful Thing You Can Do On Veterans Day Is Ask A Vet Their Story

From the battlefield to the pool deck to the boardroom, Brad Snyder has made a life out of service and excellence. 

He’s a highly decorated swimmer and triathlete who owns eight Paralympic medals — including six gold — over three Paralympic Games. He’s also a decorated U.S. Navy veteran who lost his sight after stepping on an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and currently the deputy director of the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the Academy. 

And on top of all that, he’s spent the last six years in sport governance, serving multiple roles within the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and is now a candidate for a seat on the International Paralympic Committee Governing Board. 

U.S. Paralympics Swimming caught up with Brad recently to discuss the connections between swimming, the military and service to the country, as well as how everyday people can best honor those who served as we approach Veterans Day on Nov. 11.   

I think all of it, at its core, is the same. Everything you need to do to be successful as an athlete is what we focus on to be successful in the military, and vice versa. I’ve had the opportunity to live that loop going from athlete to military officer then back to an athlete. All the things you might expect — the virtues of taking risks, being disciplined in your preparation, doing things that other people aren’t willing to do, going to morning practices, extra weight room sessions, — to be a disciplined athlete, to be a virtuous athlete, are the same things you do in the military.  

When I was a young athlete my dad always tried to instill in me a sense that trying to be successful in swimming was certainly a valuable end in and of itself, but that wasn’t the end as far as my dad was concerned. My dad would say sports was a means to the end of character development: developing resilience, developing toughness, developing a growth mindset, a warrior mindset, that sort of stuff.  

I talk a lot about the challenge loop. When you first get to the Naval Academy you don’t know anything about the Naval Academy or the Navy or how to salute or any of that stuff, and they sort of take you through a crash course. They yell at you a lot and they expect you to learn very, very fast because the hallmarks of the military environment are chaos and uncertainty and you have to be able to learn very quickly. 

I thrived in that environment and really enjoyed that. The hallmark of my career, whether it was bomb disposal or scuba diving or skydiving, on Day 1 you don’t know very much. By Day 6 you’re expected to be at a pretty high proficiency of that skill set, and by Day 10 you’re expected to be a master of that skillset. 

In many ways it’s how blindness manifested for me. It’s a new skillset. I’ve been through this loop before; I know how to be uncomfortable. I know how to know nothing, I know how to get from knowing nothing to knowing a lot in a very short amount of time, and that allowed me to succeed into blindness. 

I think probably the thing that comes to mind the most is maintaining a sense of grounding and perspective during the whole thing. 

I think that starting at the beginning with swimming I remember the moment when my coach would write a challenge set on board: We’re going to do this big, long, hard thing. We’re going to swim more laps than ever before. And you’re looking at the board thinking, ‘I’ve never done anything quite like that, that’s going to be a level of discomfort I’m not accustomed to.’ 

But there’s a thing you have to figure out in your mind about how do I take this on? How do I push myself into something I’ve never done before? How do I keep focused? How do I keep disciplined? How do I attack this thought I’m a little of it or a lot afraid of it? That’s a skill set you develop as a kid navigating those challenges. It keeps you grounded and gives you confidence to know challenges might come, but I know how to manage challenges. I know how to be uncomfortable. I’ve done this before. 

Then you go into the military, and during my time in the global war on terror we lost friends, there was a lot of hardship, a lot of things that happened — and some people didn't make it back.  

For me to come up against my own death and then come back put things in perspective of, you may think this is hard but don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re still here. This may be challenging, but don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re still here. This may be a moment that’s pretty big and may be more than you can handle, but don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re still here. 

And I think that’s really big. (At the Paralympic Games) the moment you walk out and they say your name and say your heat and you’re going to walk out into that crowd and try to match the expectation of that moment, where you could win this race or you could flop, you could screw it up, and it’s all on you to figure it out. If you don’t have the preparation and confidence in yourself that you can walk into that environment and step up to that challenge, a lot of athletes fold. 

I had the luck of not being one of those athletes, and I think it’s a testament to that life experience and that preparation.  

One hundred percent. I’ve been firm about the direct connection between the two things from the beginning. I get a lot of satisfaction and gratification by the idea that my performance as an athlete is very much a continuation of my service in a way. 

Much of what you’re doing as an officer or leader in the military, especially a senior leader, is leading by a positive example. Shaping culture. Fostering an environment where others can thrive. Creating space where other people can feel empowered or inspired and bring out the potential in other people. That’s what leadership is. 

(Team USA) athletes represent the best aspects of our country and humanity, in a way, and inspire other people to realize their own potential. That’s service, I think.    

The experience of someone in that minority of people (who have served in the military, especially those who served during the global war on terror) is that I have this weird experience that not everyone is connected to. And our experience is often that people don’t know the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan, they don’t know why we were there in the first place or why we left, who is ISIS and why is that significant. It’s headlines in the news that they’re not particularly connected to, and they sort of ignore it. 

And there was this ‘thank you for your service’ dynamic, which was really nice for a while, and then people realized it was just knee jerk, it was just a thing people were saying because they didn’t know what to say, so they said, ‘Thank you for your service’ but then walked on and they didn’t meaningfully engage. 

I’m painting this picture because for many modern vets of the global war on terror, it’s a feeling of isolation. The general people don’t really understand what that was all about. And going back to the Vietnam generation, they 100 percent reflected this feeling of isolation and disconnection. 

So the most meaningful thing you can do on Veterans Day is ask a vet their story. Be genuinely curious about, where did you go, and what was your job and why were you there, what was the experience like, what did it look like, what did it smell like, who was there with you, were you glad to come home? And what was that like having been in this other place for so long, and how do you feel about all that? Are you proud of your service? And that sort of stuff. 

Let someone open up to you. I think the general feeling is that no one wants to ask a veteran something because they don’t want to say the wrong thing or offend anybody, but I think actually the silence is more offensive than the question. 

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.