If you’ve been seeking personal growth, painfully dealing with PTS, desperately trying to strategize self-help, or know anyone who falls under these categories, Sgt Q can help you.
Aaron Quinonez, most commonly known as Sgt Q, has become a man of many talents. After serving eight years in the Marines, he returned from Iraq to find himself homeless & suicidal. It took nothing less than a ton of hard work, reflection, research, and prayer to be able to start a business and spend the following seven years on the mission field building churches and schools. Nevertheless, thirteen years later, he’s grown to employ over 100 people in the Pacific Northwest, owns a commercial building in downtown Auburn and now has a technology startup with a plans to continue serving and healing the world the same way he found healing.
After being named Seattle’s Hometown Hero in 2017 and receiving a Distinguished Service Award followed by a Superior Service Award from the Washington State Department of Veteran affairs, one could claim that Sgt Q is on to something. To change the stigma around Mental Health and prevent suicide, he’s created an app called Operation PopSmoke that is litterallysaving lives of the most vulnerable. Sgt Q and his senior mentors have traveled the world teaching and layout the concepts behind his influential mentality that has brought healing to so many.
Realizing quickly that he and his team could only touch so many lives through their in-person lectures and teachings he became a published author, his book titled, Healing Thru Service: The Warrior’s Guide to Overcoming Trauma comes with a companion journal for a more in-depth and hands-on approach to taking your life back. Although initially aimed at struggling veterans, this book also offers help for anyone in crisis and may be your ticket to a more fulfilled life. At the bottom of the beginning page provided for dedications, it reads, “For all those who are lost in the pain of your past—we are coming to find you.”
While he’s not building houses on mission trips, he’s teaching classes and leading training for health care professionals, community members, and anyone interested in how to use hope to create new, positive triggers. The idea is to turn something destructive into something admirable; then witness the healing begin.
In his down time you can often find Sgt Q at the rivers and lakes of his host country, rod and reel in hand hoping to land the next big fish.
