There are people whose lives feel like more than one story stitched together. Jeff Tiegs is one of them. He’s a soldier, a leader, a believer, and someone who has weathered many storms. But what makes him stand out is how he has used his strengths—honed under unimaginable pressure—to try to bring light into dark places. In this article, we’re going to walk through his life: where he came from, what shaped him, what he stands for now, and what we can learn from him. My hope is you’ll come away not just knowing his story, but seeing parts of your own journey in it.
Early Life & Military Career
Jeff Tiegs did not start life with a silver spoon. He grew up in a world where physical endurance, mental toughness, and sacrifice mattered. Early on, he discovered discipline and service meant more than the immediate rewards. That attitude led him to join the U.S. Army Rangers at age eighteen. From there, he kept pushing—he didn’t stay safe, he sought challenge. Eventually, Tiegs rose through the ranks, moving from Ranger private to Delta Force lieutenant colonel.
In his over 25 years of military service, Tiegs served in places like Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He saw things most of us can only imagine—loss, pressure, unpredictability. Those moments left scars. He lost friends. He faced trauma. But in those same moments, he built strength. Not just physical strength, but something deeper: resilience, clarity of purpose, and a sense of identity beyond uniform and mission. Experiences in combat zones forced him to ask hard questions: What am I here for? How do I stay grounded when the ground is shaking?
What’s striking is how he used those experiences—not to harden himself into something unfeeling—but to fuel empathy and action. Many soldiers find it hard to leave the battlefield behind. Tiegs used his time there to learn what matters, what endures, what leadership really requires—not the medals, but the moments when someone needed you.
The Faith Journey
One theme you’ll keep seeing with Jeff Tiegs is faith. It’s not a side note. It’s woven into his life, even in the darkest corridors. After years of engaging with danger, watching people suffer, and carrying the weight of responsibility, faith became more than ritual—it became a map.
Stories from the Bible became lenses through which he viewed his own life. Take David, the shepherd boy who faced a giant with just a slingshot. That story isn’t just old—it becomes alive when you’ve looked at something impossible and still taken aim. Tiegs refers to those ancient stories—not as comfort food, but as sources of meaning. They offered him hope, guidance, and sometimes, a way to make sense of pain.
There are times when faith was simple—a prayer in a lonely post, reading in a worn copy of scripture, or remembering a promise. And there are times it demanded everything: facing loss, doubts, moments when the path was unclear. What’s inspiring is that Tiegs didn’t hide those moments; he shared them. Admitting doubt, admitting hurt. That vulnerability is a key part of his message. It reminds us that faith isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence.
From Soldier to Social Impact Leader
When someone has spent decades in war zones, the natural question is: what do you do with what you’ve seen? Jeff Tiegs took much of what he learned—about strategy, about human behavior, about trauma—and turned it toward justice.
He founded Skull Games, a nonprofit with a purpose. It doesn’t just sit in theory. Skull Games works globally to identify and fight sex trafficking, to help those who’ve been exploited, to bring survivors into work that restores, and to partner with law enforcement.
One of the tools they use is OSINT — open source intelligence. It means using information that’s publicly available: signals, posts, emojis, slang, patterns in online behavior. Traffickers have their codes, their hidden ways of communicating. Tiegs and his team teach survivors some of these tools—the very skills that they or others in his network once used in battle—to recognize trafficker language, to map networks, to provide crucial intelligence to law enforcement. That combination—lived experience + technical skill + moral urgency—is rare.
A program called Survivor-Hunter shows this blend well. It brings survivors of trafficking into the work—not just as recipients of aid, but as partners. They use what they know of the inside (abuse, control, fear) to help expose exploitation. That process can be part of healing. As survivors help dismantle trafficking structures, they re-assert power over their stories.
Books and Writing
Jeff Tiegs doesn’t just lead missions—he tells stories. His book Where Have All the Heroes Gone? is an example. It mixes ancient stories (from the Bible) with his own life in combat zones. It’s not just about heroism in the traditional sense. It’s about what heroism costs, what it means to fail, what it means to stay in the fight when the fight is inside you.
Reading it, I was struck by how simple the lessons are, but how hard they are to live. Things like loyalty, courage, honesty, and faith. He doesn’t sugar-coat. He shows guilt, grief, loss. But he also shows restoration, mercy, meaning. If you’ve ever felt like the heroes in your life—spiritual, moral, personal—have let you down, or like you’ve let yourself down, the book can be a map: here’s where they stumbled, here’s where they found strength, here’s where the horizon still holds.
He also speaks publicly: podcasts, interviews, nonprofit forums. He uses those spaces to reinforce the same message: stories matter. Your story matters. What you do, how you respond, how you heal—those are part of the heroic arc.
Leadership, Lessons, & Values
When someone leads in combat, in nonprofit, and in personal life after war, they see leadership from many angles.
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Purpose over popularity. Tiegs shows that what matters is not how many likes or how many applauses, but whether what you do aligns with what you believe is right. That often means saying no, or walking paths others avoid.
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Courage to face brokenness. This is not just physical courage. It’s emotional, spiritual. Admitting you’re wounded. Asking for help.
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Sacrifice and service. He gives credit to those who serve around him. He knows it takes teams, and sometimes silent service. Some people won’t see the sacrifice, but that doesn’t make it meaningless.
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Adaptability. The skills of war—strategy, rapid decision making, risk assessment—don’t disappear with retirement. Tiegs uses them for new battles: for justice, for restoration. He adapts what he knows to new contexts.
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Empathy grounded in experience. It’s easy to speak about helping others. It’s harder when you’ve lived trauma yourself. Having been there, Tiegs can speak with authority and compassion to survivors of trafficking and those who lost mates, or those who feel abandoned or betrayed.
Lessons he shares include: that failures aren’t final; that leaders need rest; that being a hero doesn’t mean never being afraid—it means being afraid and moving anyway.
Family, Personal Life & Balance
It’s one thing to live under fire. It’s another to come home. Jeff Tiegs married his high school sweetheart, Julianne Louise Safir, when they were nineteen. They have two sons, Aaron and Jonah. Inside that stillness, there must have been tension—deployments, combat, loss, distance. Yet he often speaks about how family anchors him. The values he sees in them sustain him.
He’s also had to deal with trauma: grief over friends lost, the weight of responsibility, moral injury. In several interviews, he admits that faith helps, but community helps too—counselors, other veterans, honest conversations. That kind of balance—being honest about brokenness and still leaning into love and family—is part of the model.
For people reading his story, it’s encouraging. It tells us that even when life demands everything of you, there are still places, people, truths that keep you whole. It’s not either/or. It’s both.
Impact and Legacy
Jeff Tiegs has been recognized many times. He holds both the Ranger and Special Forces tabs. He also has military freefall badges, combat diver’s badge. He earned multiple medals—bronze stars, silver star—for distinguished service and valor in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
But more than medals, his legacy is what he is building now: Skull Games; the Survivor-Hunter initiative; empowering survivors; bringing OSINT tools to fight trafficking; telling stories that can heal. Many people who hear him report being inspired—not in the “rah-rah” way, but in the “what if I could face my own battles” way.
He’s not just an example. He’s also a blueprint. Not everyone will serve in combat. Not everyone will lead a nonprofit. But everyone has some battle, some place of pain, some place of loss. And everyone has some decision point: do I stay stuck, or do I use what I’ve been through to shape something better?
What You Can Take From His Journey
Here are some things we can borrow from Jeff Tiegs’s life:
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Your past can equip you. The struggles, losses, fears—they can become tools, not chains.
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Stories shape identity. Ancient stories, personal stories—they help name what’s going on inside and what you believe. Telling your story matters.
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Service beyond self brings meaning. When you dedicate energies to something beyond comfort or profit, it tends to bring both responsibility and deep satisfaction.
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Healing is possible. Trauma doesn’t have to define your entire life. It can inform your reach, your empathy, and how you see the world.
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Faith (or whatever anchors you) can be real in brokenness. It doesn’t erase problems, but it can help you face them.
Conclusion
Jeff Tiegs’s life is complex, hard, joyful, faith-filled, battle-scarred, but not broken. He is a reminder that leadership isn’t about perfection, it’s about purpose. That heroism isn’t always loud; often it is quiet, in how we show up for others, in choosing hope when despair presses close.
If there’s one thing I hope you take away, it’s this: no matter where you come from or what you’ve seen, you have the chance to turn your past into power, your faith into action, and your story into something that matters. Let’s allow ourselves to be shaped by truth, service, love, and courage.
FAQ
Who is Jeff Tiegs?
Jeff Tiegs is a retired U.S. Army special operations soldier (Ranger, Delta Force) who, after decades of combat service, now leads nonprofit efforts, writes, speaks, and uses his experience to work against sex trafficking and for spiritual meaning.
What is Skull Games?
Skull Games is a nonprofit founded by Jeff Tiegs. It focuses on combating human trafficking, using intelligence tools like OSINT, and helping survivors heal and partner in restoring justice.
What book(s) has Jeff Tiegs written?
His book Where Have All the Heroes Gone? is a major work. It connects ancient stories (especially from the Bible) with his own life and military experience.
What kind of missions has Jeff Tiegs done?
He’s served in special operations in Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others. He’s done counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and led men in combat. These missions involved risk, loss, leadership under pressure.
How does he use his faith in his work?
Faith shapes many of his decisions, his resilience, and how he frames his work. He uses stories from the Bible not as wall decor but as lifelines—sources of hope, lessons, moral framework. He also speaks openly about pain, doubt, and how faith carried him through.
