From the outside he was a highly decorated service member, a champion MMA fighter, and a brave law enforcement professional. But Chad Robichaux was at his lowest point – contemplating taking his own life to make the pain stop.

“But the one thing that kept me or delayed me from doing that, as I sat in my closet with my pistol and tried to decide how to do it – I knew my kids would be the ones that would find me. So I kept delaying, trying to figure out how to make it look like a accident.”

And it was at this time, perhaps the most pivotal in his entire life, that a life changing conversation occurred.

“My wife came to my apartment with the divorce papers, and she wanted to speak with me. I was a real jerk to her – even though I wanted the divorce. She asked me a question that just radically changed my life. She asked me how I could do everything I did – all the challenges I was able to overcome. How could I do all these things, but when it came to my family, I just quit?”

It was a transformational question, and it led Chad to turn somewhere he had turned few times before – to others, instead of to his own strength.

“I made a decision to turn around. I couldn’t do it by myself, and I couldn’t do it with the people that I had surrounded myself with. So I asked my wife if there was someone at the church she was going to who could help hold me accountable with this decision to turn things around. Because I had made a faith based decision at that time.”

“She introduced me to a man named Steve Hill who never served in military. We met at a Starbucks, and I had literally written out a plan. I wrote a perfect plan of how to fix my life. I showed it to him, and he looked at me and passed it right back to me. And he said, you’re going to end up right back where you are you now.”

This was – to say the least – a surprising response to Chad.

“I was offended! I was like, who is this guy? But he was right. I was trying to manipulate him. I was saying all the right things, and he wasn’t buying it. And so I trusted this man. And he mentored me for a year in Biblical manhood, and taking my life with Christ to a very authentic level. I really discovered what it was to be the man that God created me be.”


Chad Robichaux is the founder of the Mighty Oaks Warrior Foundation programs, a former elite Marine special forces operator, and a man who has advised the government on veteran’s affairs. His latest book is called An Unfair Advantage: Victory in the Midst of Battle.

On the Road with Chad Robichaux