Who is Sam Brown and what happened to him?

Republican Senate hopeful Sam Brown has one of those faces you remember. There’s a good reason for that.

The eldest of five children, per his website, Brown said his parents instilled an “undying commitment to the service of others” when he was young. After 9/11, he decided he had to serve his country and before he knew it he was training to be an officer at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

By 2008, he was commissioned as an Infantry Officer and assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Hood. From there he was deployed to Kandahar in Afghanistan. By this time he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Four months into his deployment, an attack by the Taliban surprised his platoon. Brown’s Humvee hit a roadside bomb, and he was soaked in diesel and engulfed in flames. The accident disfigured him and almost cost him his life. He thought for sure he was going to die.

“I remember laying there, facedown in the dirt in the Kandahar desert, trying to scoop dirt over myself to smother the flames and having no success, and thinking to myself: How long will it take to burn to death? What happens as I die?” he told The New York Times. “And then literally making the decision to give up the will to live.”

Another soldier, also badly injured, fortunately intervened and gave him first aid until he was evacuated to a burn unit back in the States. He was medically retired from the military as a captain, and an intense period of rehabilitation began.

Over three years, he had over 30 surgeries. During that time, he fell in love and married U.S. Army First Lieutenant Amy Larsen, who worked as his dietician during his recovery. He decided that he still wanted to dedicate his life to the service of others, but he didn’t quite know exactly what that meant.

He went back to school at Southern Methodist University and earned a Master’s in Business Administration. From there he went to work in an Amazon fulfillment center, while he worked on a business to provide emergency pharmaceutical support to veterans outside of the VA.

Now, as of 2024, he’s challenging Democrat Senator Jacky Rosen in Nevada. He said he was inspired to run because he wanted to help those in their lowest moments like he was when he lay in that pool of diesel and fire.

“I see a lot of hopelessness in our country right now,” he said, “and I’m coming into this Senate race with a perspective of, I’ve been the recipient and a blessing of someone coming to my aid when I needed it most.”