DVIDS – News – U.S. Marine Received Two Purple Hearts, Bringing Awareness to Effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Okinawa, Japan — The wind was crisp as Marines stood in formation, with family and friends coming together in the winter morning. As the medal, the countenance of George Washington set in violet, was pinned over Faffler’s heart, his wife and children by his side, it was hard to not shed a tear as emotions were heightened during this special moment.

U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 2 William J. Faffler, the visual information officer with 3rd Marine Logistics Group, received two Purple Hearts from Brig. Gen. Kevin G. Collins, the commanding general of 3rd MLG, during a Purple Heart ceremony on Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Japan, Jan. 6, 2025.

Although this ceremony took place in 2025, the origin of these medals began in 2010, during his deployment to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom 10-1. Cpl. Faffler was the singular combat videographer for 1st Marine Division headquarters from March 2010 to March 2011, where he supported the Division’s ground combat elements as the videographer chief, providing visual documentation and imagery product creation and review.

On May 2, 2010, Faffler was attached to Combat Engineer detachment, Task Force Thor, in the vicinity of Now Zad, when his vehicle struck 120 pounds of homemade explosives. His group was inside a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAP), which is designed to withstand mines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).

“I was unconscious for about two minutes and received a Grade III concussion. When I returned to consciousness, everything seemed dark and moving in slow motion,” Faffler recounted. “The front tires had been launched about 100 meters outboard, but the main body stayed intact. I have no memory of how we returned to base.”

Faffler immediately suffered severe headaches, sensitivity to light, confusion, disorientation, mood swings, and memory issues, and had to take about a month for his symptoms to subside before returning to his mission.

Col. Robert Gardner, retired, former operations officer with 1st MarDiv during that time, recounted the operational environment they dealt with, stating that the IED Faffler’s convoy struck was four times the normal size of explosives normally encountered.

“At the time, Helmand Province was the most kinetic province in Afghanistan, with IED attacks occurring almost daily, along with direct small arms and machine gun attacks by insurgent forces,” Gardner said. “He is lucky to have survived, since 40-pound IEDs had shredded vehicles in other areas of Helmand Province.”

On Oct. 25, 2010, five months following the TF Thor convoy, Faffler was attached to Company Bravo, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, for Operation Eastern Endeavor, in the green zone between Sangin and the Kajaki Dam. At this point, he was months past any lingering effects of the IED strike.

“While on a reconnaissance foot patrol, the point man near me was hit with an IED, becoming a triple amputee,” Faffler said, “I received a Grade II concussion. I do not remember much of what happened, but I was later told that I had aided two other severely wounded Marines, including the triple amputee.”

Faffler was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device for providing emergency aid to those injured Marines. However, just as before, he suffered from headaches, light sensitivity, confusion, and memory problems. At the time, Faffler did not seek medical attention for the persisting symptoms, letting them subside over time as he prioritized his unit’s operations over the effects he was experiencing

“I did not say anything to our company corpsman about any issues during these times as I was more concerned about the mission than going to medical”.

Five months after his second concussion, Faffler returned from his deployment and was reunited with his family. While the stress of deployment and combat fell away, something was off following his return. For some reason, he had to rely on his wife for the most basic of things, such as remembering the names of family members, appointments, recipes, prices, and even days of the week. These everyday things became difficult for him to process.

“Following deployment, my family noticed that my personality, drive, mood, and my mental capacity had changed significantly to an almost unrecognizable new me,” Faffler said. “For a while I wrote it off as more Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder related due to the loss of my best friend and the dealing with the realities of life after combat. The PTSD symptoms did ease with time, but the brain issues did not.”

In 2012, Faffler revealed the issues he was having during an annual health assessment, but due to the state of Afghanistan at the time, there was little capacity to diagnose and treat those who were not in immediate danger. Not considering himself to have serious enough issues compared to other combat-injured Marines, Faffler did not seek treatment for the next eleven years, thinking that his moods and memory issues were harmless and things he could learn to manage. Until they weren’t.

Faffler’s symptoms continued to escalate, with his mental considerations having an increasingly negative impact on his work and home life. Things reached a boiling point when he came to terms that a decade of living with those difficulties wasn’t making anything better.

“In 2023, while serving with 3rd MLG as the Visual Information Officer, I was self-referred to the chaplain and the Combat Stress Platoon due to issues with how I was feeling and performing,” Faffler explained. “Since 2010 my life changed. I had become slower and often apathetic about things that used to give me vigorous drive. I explained symptoms of insomnia, severe headaches, distractibility, mood swings, irritability, and poor concentration, resulting in me performing far below my usual standards and having issues with people at work.”

Faffler was diagnosed with at least two traumatic brain injuries due to the IEDs he experienced in Afghanistan in 2010. While he finally got some answers and aid as to the changes he’d been living with, he will have to manage these issues for the rest of his life. His subsequent submission for the Purple Heart was an official recognition of his injuries and struggles with their repercussions, but it wasn’t something he did for himself.

“Although I was certain I rated one, I never planned on submitting for the award. I have always considered all of my experiences, both positive and negative, to be compensatory for my service to free Americans,” Faffler said. “But it was my family shouldered a great deal of that burden. If anything, the Purple Heart is validation for them that they had to do things that others won’t ever have to do. It honors their sacrifices and, in a way, honors our family’s service. I also wanted my children to see that it’s okay to be injured, even wounded, but not okay to use it as an excuse to do anything but your best.”

So, in the winter morning of Okinawa, Faffler stands with the long-awaited medal pinned to his uniform, a testament to the support his family provided and the struggles they weathered for him. Additionally, it leaves us with the reminder that TBIs are a serious condition that can greatly impact one’s life, work, and family.

“The way I see it, I volunteered for this during OIF/OEF fully aware of the potential costs,” said Faffler. “Costs I have paid whether physical, mental, missed childhoods, lost brothers, and all else, were prices that I paid so that someone else didn’t have to. However, after combat, when the music faded and the lights started to come back on, I realized that I hadn’t been paying those prices alone. Family, friends, co-workers, all have been impacted in some way through the impact it had on me. It took me almost fourteen years to figure out that some symptoms were TBI and not PTSD, not just random headaches. I urge those who have had concussions to seek treatment.”