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Social media influencer and war veteran Neal Currey, 42, committed suicide on Saturday, according to his wife, after a long battle with wartime post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Casey Currey, who has her own prominent presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, posted on Instagram that the lingering memories of Afghanistan and Iraq weighed heavily on her husband and that he was waging an “internal war that was nothing but combat.”
“Despite his incredible ability to fight and persevere, Neal sadly and eventually lost this war and took his own life on September 10 and tragically became one of many in a long string of statistics that has become a long and painful memory. of the cost of our more than twenty years at war,” Casey Currey, 30, wrote on the platform.
Neal Currey, 42, Iraq war veteran who became gun store owner and social media influencer committed suicide on Sept. 10, his wife says, due to trauma he suffered during the war
Neal Currey, 42, was able to compartmentalize his psychological trauma he suffered during the Iraq war, his wife Casey Currey said, but it ended up being too much
A much younger Neal Currey (right) during his time as an Army Ranger. He joined the military after the 9/11 terror attacks
Neal Currey, who was a former Army Ranger, served four tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a member of a private security force.
In an emotional Instagram post, his wife Casey revealed that the “perfect life” seen by followers on social media disguised a more painful reality.
While Neal lived what many considered the ‘perfect life’, it is also important for people to know that there was another side of him that reminds us all that life is never perfect as it seems and that the struggles we face alive, especially that of soldiers who have seen the horrors and traumas of combat, are real no matter who we are and what our lives look like on the outside,” the crushed husband wrote.
She said her husband hid that side from most people and even tried to “compartment” his pain.
In an emotional letter to his fans and friends, Casey Currey reveals the trauma behind the “perfect life” he showcased on Instagram.
“Neal, like many of you, struggled with the unseen wounds that follow soldiers home from war and live in the recesses of their psyche for the rest of their lives, long after the battles are over and the accolades of their service die down,” she said. “While Neal was able to compartmentalise this portion of his life most of the time, the battle would periodically surface and become an internal war that, like combat, has days of triumph and days of loss.”
Currey, who came from a family of adventurous outdoorsmen, grew up in Utah helping his father, who was an international white-water rafting guide.
After serving in the military, he moved back to the Provo, Utah area, where he launched his Ready Gunner gun shop.
His shaggy All-American looks, perfect body, and wacky videos—usually featuring powerful weapons—made him an Instagram hero for gun enthusiasts.
“Knowing Neal meant loving him. We have lost a wonderful husband, father, son, brother and friend. We will never be the same without Neal in our lives,” the woman wrote.
In another post she wrote: “I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of love and support for our family.
“I know this has left a gaping hole in everyone’s heart.”
A viewing for Currey will be held on September 16, followed by his funeral the following day.
The couple, who lived in Lindon, Utah, outside of Provo, had one child together and they both raised four children from Neal’s previous relationship.
Social media influencer and war veteran Neal Currey, 42, died Saturday, according to a post from his wife on Instagram
Currey, 42, and his wife Casey Currey, 30, in the desert. Neal passed away on Saturday September 10 due to unknown reasons
Neal Currey, left, ran the popular Ready Gunner gun shop with wife Casey Currey, 30, which provides classes and training in gun handling (pictured here with rapper Post Malone)
“I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of love and support for our family. “I know this has left a gaping hole in everyone’s heart,” his wife Casey wrote on Instagram
Just three days ago, he posted a video of himself riding a surfboard in the wake of a motorboat on Lake Powell during a family vacation in Southern Utah.
He came from a family of adventurers, according to… Coffee or Die magazine.
His grandfather Jack was a river guide for white water rafting on the San Juan River and developed the ships that are still called J boats. His father Stephen was also an outdoorsman, taking up river rafting internationally by navigating first on China’s Upper Yangtze River, India’s Upper Ganges, and Venezuela’s Caura River.
The younger Currey boasted that he had set foot on every continent before joining the military, according to the coffee lifestyle magazine, often paddling on a resupply and luggage raft in the back.
Spurred on by the 9/11 terror attacks, Currey joined the military at age 24 and served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006.
It was during one of his trips that he discovered that his father, who was planning a trip to the Arctic, had developed cancer, according to the profile in Coffee or Die.
The Curreys created a glamorous profile of a beautiful couple who loved family, the outdoors and guns
Neal Currey, top center, cut a shaggy but funny figure on Instagram to promote his gun shop – Ready Gunner
Casey made viral videos for this gun shop Ready Gunner, like this one in which he fires a machine gun at a skateboard
Currey joked about his love of guns on Instagram
“It took 40 days from diagnosis to burial,” Currey told the publication. He swore he would make his father proud.
After the military, he continued to be a gun enthusiast, starting Ready Gunner, gun shop and shooting range, then founding Black Rifle Coffee in Orem, Utah.
Currey and his wife Casey cut the perfect picture of a western family on Instagram.
The muscular, square-jawed former soldier seemed poised to become famous on Instagram, posting funny videos like his firing a machine gun at a skateboard.
There is no questioning his position on the Second Amendment. In almost every post Currey can be seen with a different type of high-powered rifle and in some posts a shopping cart full.
Casey had her own following, as the “Miss America” of the gun community, under the social media moniker @BuffCookie, posting bikini photos showing off her figure.
She said she took comfort in all the weapons in her house.
Neal and Casey joke about a 50mm machine gun on Instagram. His cause of death remains a mystery
In previous interviews, Casey said America is suffering from a mental health crisis, not a gun problem.
“We don’t have a gun problem in our country, we have a mental illness. That should be our main focus,” she said.
The couple has five children, four from him and one from her.
“I like the comfort of knowing that if something happens, we can protect ourselves,” she said. “Fear comes from the unknown. Firearms and firearms safety are well known in our family.’
“They know they are not toys and should be taken very seriously. Handling firearms correctly is so important, and the sooner you learn it, the better,” she added.
Neal Currey became so enthralled with guns and social media that he started a third company, 2A Media, aimed at spreading a positive message about guns on social media.
The most important image he could present, he said, was that of a good father.
“We’re not here forever,” he said. ‘I learned that early on. I just want my kids to look back and be proud of their father.”